On the terrace of a café in the Noorderplantsoen in Groningen, Tamara Knoop (26) and Isabel Prak (26) discuss the results of the House of Representatives elections on Thursday morning. “We’ve been talking about it all morning. It keeps us busy,” says Knoop. “You go to bed with the idea that D66 has become the largest and you wake up to the news that it is the PVV that can become the largest,” says Prak. “It remains exciting.”
Knoop had long doubted which party she should vote for this time. She voted NSC in the previous elections. “But that went terribly wrong.” In 2021 she chose D66. “After that I was disappointed in Sigrid Kaag and I no longer wanted to vote for D66.”
I voted NSC last year. But that went terribly wrong
Only during the final debate did she decide what it was going to be. Rob Jetten. “He was very convincing there.”
In the municipality of Groningen, where the PvdA was always the largest until the 2017 elections, D66 has achieved a major victory. Almost three times as many people voted for Jetten’s party: now 24.4 percent of the residents, compared to 9 percent then. The party thus leaves GroenLinks-PvdA behind (24 percent).
Posters
Anyone walking through the city center would not expect that D66 has become the largest. If there is a poster of a political party behind the window, it is one of GroenLinks-PvdA or the Party for the Animals. Posters from the CDA and GroenLinks-PvdA about Rob Jetten have been pasted on two sticky columns at the Vismarkt and further away at a university location. Only sporadically does the yellow of D66 appear.
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As absent as the party was in the streets, it was as present on social media. And that is important in the city with the youngest inhabitants of the Netherlands. “I think it is really thanks to Rob Jetten that D66 is now so successful,” says Prak. “He is also doing well on TikTok. There he has videos about Protect the Dolls (about the rights of transgender people). He says the right things.”
Knoop finds the party’s ideas on housing construction particularly interesting. “I think that is an important topic. Now the discussion is that migrants take over all the homes, but I think that is too simplistic. Everyone should be able to have a house.”
She hopes that after these elections the country “will no longer stand still. Less discussion and more getting done.” But with which parties should D66 do this? “I find that difficult. What is the best outcome for what D66 wants? I don’t know.”
I am back to the party, because I also voted for it in 2021
Exam week
The bicycle shed in front of the university library in the city center is packed. Students study for exams indoors. Most people don’t want to make time to talk about the elections. Four students indicate that they voted for D66. In the sixteen university and college towns, 22 percent of residents voted for D66, compared to 16 percent nationally, the Higher Education Press Agency calculated.
Fleur Grashuis (23) walks her dog with her mother Anouk Spiele (50) in the Noorderplantsoen. Grashuis voted for the Party for the Animals, she says, pointing to her dog, a five-month-old puppy. Her mother, who lives in Oldenzaal and is visiting her daughter in Groningen, voted for D66. “I am back to the party, because I also voted for it in 2021.”
She thinks that Jetten did well during the election campaign. “So positive. I see him as a leader. Even my mother, who always voted Labor Party, voted for him this time. My other daughter too.”
Spiele hopes that Jetten will opt for a coalition in the middle. “With CDA and GroenLinks-PvdA. I hope they will start building more homes.” She looks at her daughter. “You will probably also want your own home soon.”
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