Once again, council negotiations in municipalities are taking longer than in previous years. Thirteen weeks after the elections, approximately six in ten municipalities have a coalition agreement, counts the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG). That is a lot less than four years ago, when eight in ten municipalities already had an agreement after thirteen weeks.
In that year, 2022, the formation was also “considerably slower” than in 2018, concluded NRC. And in 2018 things were slower again than four years before. In 2014, coalitions had been forged in all municipalities after thirteen weeks.
There is no deadline for the formation of councils, but most municipalities regard the summer recess as an informal deadline. This year it looks like several will enter the summer without a new board. The time between presenting an agreement and the installation of new councilors can take a few days to a few weeks. After thirteen weeks, the Aldermen’s Association has 204 municipalities where the new council now operates has been installedof the 340 municipalities where elections were held last March.
As long as no new council has been formed, the current councilors will continue with their work. They also do not become ‘outgoing’ councilors, as is the case with ministers in the House of Representatives after elections. That term does not appear in the Municipal Act. No topics can be declared ‘controversial’, as in The Hague. Councilors are still allowed to interfere in everything during the negotiations for a new coalition.
It does not necessarily have to be harmful for the municipality if the negotiations take (too) long. But for a new coalition, the longer negotiations take place, the shorter the time to implement new plans. “From that perspective it is complicated,” says Simon Otjes, political scientist at Leiden University. “There is less time to fulfill election promises.”
Forum for Democracy
The VNG has postponed its member conference, which is always held in June, to September for the first time this year, due to the longer coalition negotiations. During the past two elections, the interest group noticed that more and more municipalities were without a new council in June. “Some colleges then say: we don’t want to rule over our graves, so they were absent,” says spokesperson Ruud Koerts.
In at least one municipality, the appointment of new aldermen will be postponed over the summer anyway: Velsen has planned the installation of the council on September 3. And whether that date will be met is also uncertain. In the elections, Forum for Democracy (FVD) emerged as the big winner, but apart from the local party Liberaal Blauw, no other faction wants to form a coalition with FVD.
An agreement is also still pending in municipalities such as De Bilt, Zutphen, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Rotterdam and The Hague
After advice from a scout and an informant, all factions in Velsen (except FVD, which does not want to participate) are now working on a council-wide agreement, which must be completed before the summer. Only then will council formation begin and councilors will be appointed.
An agreement is also pending in municipalities such as De Bilt, Zutphen, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Rotterdam and The Hague. In De Bilt, Pro and the VVD have been arguing for months about which parties they want to govern with. In Zutphen, the VVD pulled the plug on discussions with D66 and Pro at the beginning of June, because it had too little confidence in the collaboration. And in The Hague, negotiations between D66 and Hart voor Den Haag by Richard de Mos collapsed at the end of May: they could not agree on asylum reception.
‘Spreading Act and housing crisis’
Why is it that after every election year these formations last a few weeks longer?
“Politically speaking, the landscape has become much more complicated,” says Hatte van der Woude, chairman of the Aldermen’s Association. “On average, a municipality has more factions and you also see a tougher attitude towards each other. In other words: more exclusions and more aggressive behavior.”
According to Van der Woude, this cannot be seen separately from the transfer of government tasks since 2014: “Municipalities have many more tasks, and therefore more to discuss during negotiations. With more complex tasks than before.” Youth care, a housing crisis, the dispersal law, Van der Woude lists. “The problems have become greater and the negotiations have therefore become stricter.”
Resources are limited, says John Bijl of the Perikles Institute, which advises municipalities and trains municipal councils. Many municipalities are faced with financial shortages and have to choose where they want to cut back. “That puts pressure on the negotiations.”
Yet fragmentation of councils and decentralization of government tasks cannot explain why the formations take so much longer, according to political scientist Simon Otjes. Otjes examined the duration of the formations in 2014, 2018 and 2022. Due to the increased fragmentation, the formations last about a day longer, he calculated. “But every election there are about two weeks of coalition negotiations.” Moreover, negotiations are taking longer again this year, while the number of factions in municipal councils actually decreased slightly on average. through the merger of GroenLinks with PvdA.
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‘Good theory? Just sign up
Whether it will take longer because it has become administratively more complicated for municipalities since decentralization in 2014, is also difficult to say, according to Otjes. “It was difficult for us to get a handle on that in the research.” Even after 2018, the formation has continued to take longer, he emphasizes. “There is clearly something going on, but there is no ideal explanation yet. Anyone with a good theory is welcome to report.”
An explanation that Otjes himself suggests is that the formation process has been “professionalized” over the past twelve years. “That sounds positive, but it has also been formalized. Many municipalities first do an exploratory phase, then an informant is asked.” And perhaps copying behavior plays a role: “Local politicians also look at The Hague: formation there also takes a long time, and it is also politically complicated. But that is more of an explanation based on my feeling,” says Otjes.
Twenty years ago it was more like: sit in a room together and see how you get out of it. And everyone added a little water to the wine
Municipalities that approach negotiations without an external scout or informant appear to have become rare indeed. It is difficult to say how many will do without it this year: there is no overview. In the Rijnmond region, of the 23 municipalities, only Zwijndrecht, Ridderkerk and Gorinchem could do without a scout or informant, the inventory found. RTV Rijnmond.
A thorough exploration or information phase may take longer, but it can really help municipalities move forward, according to John Bijl, who was himself an explorer in Papendrecht and formateur in Nieuwegein this year. “Twenty years ago it might have been more: sit in a room together and see how you get out of it. And everyone compromised a bit. But if you handle the process well, you can also go a layer deeper. Sometimes the administrative culture is really rotten and you need renovation work, instead of just a lick of paint.”
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