Labour member Peter van Oudsten (62) will succeed Ruud Vreeman as the new mayor of Groningen, Dagblad van het Noorden writes.

Leeuwarden-born Den Oudsten was mayor of Meppel and is presently mayor of Enschedé.

Mayors in the Netherlands are not elected. Candidates are put forward by a commission made up of members of the council and are then appointed by the crown, a system which has been controversial for years.

Den Oudsten, who will take over from Vreeman in January 2015, was chosen by the committee for his experience. ‘He is a man of calmness and stature’, the paper quotes a committee member as saying.