Local elections: Populists may be kept out in Rotterdam, but lead in The Hague

Photo: DutchNews.nl
Photo: DutchNews.nl

Despite emerging as by far the biggest party in Rotterdam at last month’s local elections, populist party Leefbaar Rotterdam may be squeezed out of the new coalition.

D66, the Labour party and left-wing greens of GroenLinks are working towards forming a coalition without Leefbaar after pledging to ignore the party because of its alliance with the right wing Forum voor Democratie.

All three made the decision not to work with the Leefbaar after FvD leader Thierry Baudet refused to condemn comments made by one of its candidates about race and IQ.

Leebaar, with 11 seats, remains by far the largest party in the port city. The three other parties have five seats each, still leaving them well below the 23 seats needed for an absolute majority on the 45 seat local council.

Leefbaar, D66 and the Christian Democrats worked together during the previous four years.

The Hague

In The Hague, coalition negotiator Hans Wiegel is working on forming a coalition including the populist Groep de Mos, the right-wing Liberal VVD, D66 and GroenLinks. The four parties together would have a large majority on the city council.

Negotiations are proceeding slowly but trust between the four parties is growing, one insider told the Volkskrant.

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is also working on a four-party coalition but housing is likely to prove a thorny issue in the Dutch capital, the Parool said earlier this week. Big winner GroenLinks wants to form a coalition with the Labour party, D66 and the Socialists, all of whom lost a large number of seats.

However D66 is strongly opposed to the other three parties’ plans to invest more in rent-controlled housing.

In addition, both D66 and GroenLinks are opposed to the SP’s Amsterdam for Amsterdammers’ stance, the paper said.

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