Tension runs on Wednesday evening in the Drenthe provincial house. The BBB will be the big winner of the Provincial Council elections in Drenthe, but the question is how big?
Loud cheering in the green corner when the first results arrive in the hall of the provincial government building in Assen. Emmen is the first municipality to pass on the percentage of votes: BBB 35 percent. All established parties lose, with the exception of the Party for the Animals, which makes a small profit.
The exit poll from Overijssel earlier in the evening already predicted a lot of good for the BBB, which, like Drenthe, is a rural province. According to the forecast, the BoerBurgerBeweging in the neighboring province will storm into the Provincial Council with 17 seats, making it by far the largest party with a third of the votes. And if the predictions come true, the same will happen in Drenthe.
Mobile phones
Party leader Gert-Jan Schuinder of the BBB Drenthe looks at it with satisfaction and glances at the mobile phones of party members who look up the first results. “We are ready to drive. The informateur and the candidate deputies are ready,” says Schuinder, care manager from Zuidlaarderveen. And, is the party leader himself one of the intended deputies in Drenthe? “I can be clear about that, no. Who then? I don’t want to say that yet, but we have very good candidates.”
Schuinder is not afraid that the brand new members of the BBB Drenthe will walk away arguing after a while and the faction will fall apart, as happened recently in this province with new parties such as the Forum for Democracy. “We have been together for two years and have taken courses. I’m sure that will be fine.”
CDA: ‘It doesn’t look good’
When the first results roll in, the faces of the other parties are printed. Like with the CDA. “It doesn’t look good,” says party leader and current deputy Henk Jumelet. “We are experiencing the consequences of national politics. How many seats do we get? We now have five. I hope the damage is not too bad.” “We are looking at the screens with our buttocks squeezed together,” responds Thomas Blinde, party chairman of JA21, which also has five seats.
Meppel’s result comes in: BBB 28 percent. And that in an urban municipality. The big question is with whom BBB will soon form the Executive Board. “We don’t exclude anyone, not even the PVV,” is the politically correct answer from party leader Schuinder.
Dwingeloo 91 percent
Meanwhile, King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma is constantly being called by the mayors in Drenthe about the turnout. “I just heard that the village of Dwingeloo has a turnout percentage of 91 percent. I hope I understood the mayor correctly, because it is so noisy here.”
The turnout percentage in Drenthe was 59 in the previous parliamentary elections. ,,We will certainly exceed 60 percent. I’m convinced of that. It’s really about something this time,” says Klijnsma. She refers, among other things, to the nitrogen discussion and the consequences for farmers. And about the damage wolves cause in Drenthe.