Amsterdam’s Labour leader quits after election failure

Pieter Hilhorst, leader of the Labour party in Amsterdam, has resigned following his party’s disastrous performance in the capital in Wednesday’s local elections.

The Labour party has dominated the city since 1946 but yesterday was overtaken by the Liberal democratic party D66. His decision gives the party a clean slate to start again, Hilhorst, a former political columnist, told reporters.

He took over as education alderman at the end of 2012 when Lodewijk Asscher left local politics to become social affairs minister in the Labour-VVD government.

Local D66 leader Jan Paternotte will now begin talks on forming a new coalition administration for the city. D66 has 14 seats in the 45 seat local council and Labour 10. The VVD, Socialists and GroenLinks each have six seats.

Check out the results for Amsterdam’s new district committees

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