Support for the Labour party (PvdA) may have collapsed at last year’s general election, but the party continues to dominate when it comes to new mayoral and other official appointments.

So far this year, 11 Labour party supporters have been named as mayors, the same number as for the right-wing Liberal VVD and well above the number of D66 (7) and CDA (6) appointments, the Volkskrant reported on Thursday.

Last year, Labour party members accounted for 18 out of 97 new mayoral roles. Mayors in the Netherlands are crown appointees, based on the advice of the local council, rather than elected.

Political scientist Nelleke Vedelaar told the paper that political colours are not as important as fitting the job profile drawn up by local officials. ‘The Dutch tend to ignore their mayor’s political choice and focus more on their managerial qualities,’ Vedelaar said.

The new PvdA mayors have been appointed in some of the country’s biggest towns and cities: Arnhem, Emmen, Zaanstad, Dordrecht and Groningen. The Netherlands has 380 local authority areas of which 31 have a population of more than 100,000.