Nowhere in the Netherlands have so many aldermen resigned in the past eight years as in the municipality of Meerssen. Eleven aldermen have resigned there since 2014 for political reasons.
According to research by the program pointer in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam.
Record
Nationally, 457 aldermen resigned for political reasons. On average, four out of ten aldermen do not complete their term of office. Half of them are resigning for political reasons. The other half for personal or health reasons. The latter reason has risen to a record high in recent years.
reclassification
Over the past four years there has been a lot of unrest in Meerssen’s politics. In 2020, the coalition collapsed after the councilors of the municipality threatened to resign if the city council did not opt for a reclassification with Maastricht. The aldermen were of the opinion that the financial picture looked so bad that the municipality had no other option. There was a significant budget deficit. The city council did not want to reclassify and the three aldermen resigned. A reclassification with Maastricht eventually fell through and the new coalition put forward two aldermen from outside the municipality.
After Meerssen, the municipality of IJsselstein is in second place with eight aldermen who left. Zandvoort takes third place with seven aldermen. According to Pointer, aldermen mainly resign because of a breach of trust or a coalition break. Integrity issues also arise regularly.