Local elections March 2022
From March 14 to 16, took place to elect new councils in 333 of the Netherlands 344 local authority areas, and hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals were able to vote.
GroenLinks has emerged as the biggest party among Dutch nationals abroad, with 18% of the vote, while D66 came in second with 16% and the VVD was third with 14%, according to the results of the first ever ‘foreign’ election for the senate. In total, almost 26,000 of the 37,000 Dutch expats who had signed up cast their ballot for a special electoral college which will, in turn, vote for the senate in May. Far right JA21 was in fourth... More >
The Dutch water authority association Unie van Waterschappen is planning to publish the preliminary results of the water board elections later on Thursday, following Wednesday’s vote. The higher than expected turnout has delayed some of the provincial election counts and that has had a knock-on effect on the water board results, the organisation said. In total, 13.3 million Dutch nationals and some 900,000 foreign nationals were able to vote for the 21 water boards. Turnout in 2019 was just 51%.... More >
The BBB’s ‘monster win’ in the provincial elections has left the coalition ‘battered and bruised’ but the will the true victim be the climate? What the papers say. In its analysis, the NRC said the elections were a battle between ‘the two moods’ in the Netherlands. On the one hand ‘the mood of complacency and belief in political compromise’, on the other ‘the mood of discontent, the anger at the political establishment’ linked with the farmers’ revolt, all now harnassed... More >
Prime minister Mark Rutte has said the provincial election results will not jeopardise his government’s chances of survival, despite the strong performance of the farmers’ party BBB. ‘I think the cabinet can remain stable in the coming years, because we have parties that want to take responsibility,’ he told NOS as the results began to come in. Counting was halted in dozens of municipalities and will not resume until this afternoon as counting teams struggled to deal with the highest... More >
The farmers’ party BBB is set to be the big winner in provincial elections in the Netherlands, dealing a blow to the government’s plans to reduce nitrogen pollution by buying out cattle farmers. Less than four years after it was founded, Caroline van der Plas’s party is set to be the largest group in the senate, with 15 of the 75 seats, based on a 19% share of the vote. Provincial assembly members will choose the new senate in May.... More >
The farmers’ party BBB is on course to become the biggest group in the new senate with 15 seats, according to an exit poll for national broadcaster NOS. The left-wing parties GroenLinks and Labour (PvdA), who will form a joint faction in the upper house, are also projected to win 15 seats, with eight for Jesse Klaver’s GroenLinks and seven for the PvdA. The four parties in Mark Rutte’s cabinet lost eight seats altogether, going from 32 seats to 24,... More >
The pro-farmers BBB is on target to win 31% of the vote in the rural province of Overijssel, according to the NOS exit poll. The party would then take 17 seats on the provincial council – with the CDA, VVD and GroenLinks all in joint second place with four seats each. Caroline van der Plas, founder of BBB, said the results are ‘indescribable’. ‘We have worked hard,’ she said. ‘We are going to ensure the farmers and the countryside have... More >
Voting has ended in the provincial and water board elections and, according to the first NOS exit poll, the pro-farmers BBB is the big winner in Noord Holland, which includes Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Alkmaar and Haarlem. The poll suggests that the VVD will be the second biggest party in the province, losing one seat on four years ago. D66 is also poised to take a big hit, losing two of its six seats. The BBB, by contrast, will win 9 seats... More >
Turnout in Wednesday’s provincial elections may well be higher than four years ago, according to market research group Ipsos which is monitoring voting numbers in key places on behalf of broadcaster NOS. Shortly before 2pm, turnout was put at 20%, which is two percentage points higher than at the same time in 2019. And in Amsterdam, where turnout was just over 9.3% by 1pm four years ago, some 14.5% of voters had cast their ballots. Voting is taking place for... More >
