The results of the municipal elections in Drenthe will be officially determined today. Exciting weeks ahead for the sitting councilors. After four years on the mayor and aldermen, it is not yet certain who will stay.
While the formateurs will forge coalitions and divide portfolios in the coming period, the current councilors will have to wait and see. For each of them, much depends on the choices of their party and the new composition of the council. Will their party become part of the coalition again? Will they get a place at the board table again, or will the party put forward a new face?
A role as alderman means giving up other work and exchanging security for uncertainty. Mark Tuit, currently councilor on behalf of the PvdA in Hoogeveen, is sober about this. “In this business you know that you have a four-year contract, after which there will be elections. Sometimes you win, other times you don’t.”
His party lost two seats in Hoogeveen in these elections, while FVD made the largest gains. Together with the VVD and Gemeentebelangen Hoogeveen and surrounding areas, that party is leading the formation of the new council. “We have to wait and see what happens,” Tuit realizes.
