Local elections were held in the Netherlands on Wednesday, March 18th, with 54% of all eligible voters going to the polls, slightly more than four years ago.
According to Dutch media reports, the biggest takeaway of the municipal elections is that local populist parties have made gains, taking more than a third of the votes nationwide. Local populist party Hart voor Den Haag scored a commanding victory in The Hague, winning 16 seats on the 45-seat council, a rise of seven on 2022. DutchNews reports that local parties performed particularly well in areas where the location of new refugee centres was an issue.
The leftist-green GroenLinks-PvdA combination lost votes nationwide, but remained the largest party in most of the biggest cities, including Rotterdam, where it tied in terms of seats won with the populist local party Leefbaar Rotterdam, but with slightly more votes gaines it has the lead in forming a new administration.
Votes were still being counted in Amsterdam at the time of writing but with 70% of the vote counted, GroenLinks is set to win 18% or 10 seats on the 45-seat council, with D66 second on eight seats and the PvdA, or Labour party, third and also on eight. The likely outcome is that GroenLinks and the PvdA will merge in the Dutch capital and control 18 seats.
In terms of right-wing nationalist parties, Geert Wilders‘ PVV remained stable nationwide, becoming the biggest party in Pekela in Groningen, and in Terneuzen, where a refugee centre was the biggest campaign talking point. Forum voor Democratie also made gains, winning seats in most of the 104 councils where it had candidates.
