The Labour party is the biggest party in Rotterdam with just 651 more votes than local populist party Leefbaar Rotterdam, the city’s mayor Achmed Aboutaleb announced on Friday.

This means Labour will now take the initiative in forming a new local coalition. Labour leader Dominic Schrijer said before the election he did not want to form a city executive with the Leefbaar grouping.
A coalition of Labour, the two Liberal parties and left-wing greens GroenLinks now seems a likely option, Nos tv said.

Maastricht

Meanwhile, the election committee in Maastricht has decided there will not be a recount, despite problems in at least one polling station. Instead, the end totals of each polling station are to be recalculated.
According to the results presented on Wednesday evening, support for the Labour party almost halved, with the party taking six fewer seats to end on seven.
Christian Democrat support was unchanged at seven seats, although it had a bigger share of the vote than Labour.
But according to some reports the CDA should have eight seats and Labour six.