In the previous municipal elections, local political parties won by far most votes and seats. Nationally, all local political parties won 28% of the votes and a third of municipal council seats.[3] Local parties have seen a steady rise since the 1990s. In 2018, Vlieland will be the only municipality in which no national political parties will contest the election.[4]
The Party for Freedom (PVV), which had previously only participated in The Hague and Almere, initially planned to expand to a total of sixty municipalities, but has only been able to find suitable candidates in thirty, including Rotterdam. 50PLUS will expand to twenty municipalities, while the Party for the Animals (PvdD) will contest fifteen elections. Two new national political parties will make their entrance to municipal politics. Denk will contest the elections in fourteen municipalities, while the Forum for Democracy will only contest in Amsterdam. Additionally, the latter has endorsed the local party Livable Rotterdam.[5]
45 municipalities did not have elections on 21 March due to mergers.
Electoral system
Municipal councils are elected using party-list proportional representation. The number of seats depends on the population of the municipality, ranging from nine seats for municipalities with a population below 3,000, to 45 seats for municipalities with a population over 200,000.
After the 2018 municipal elections, the GroenLinks held the largest share of seats on the municipal council, though not enough to hold a majority. As no party held a majority, a left-leaning governing coalition was formed between GroenLinks, D66, the Labour Party, and the Socialist Party, which together hold 26 of the city's 45 council seats.
[7]
The new city council elected Femke Halsema, a member of the GroenLinks, to be the mayor of Amsterdam. Halsema is the first woman to be elected mayor of Amsterdam, as well as the first member of the GroenLinks to take that position.
[8]
^"Gemeenteraden". Kiesraad.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 February 2018.
^"Dag van stemming referendum Wiv (woensdag 21 maart 2018)". Kiesraad.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2018-02-15. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
^"Gemeenteraad 19 maart 2014". Verkiezingsuitslagen (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 February 2018.
^"De opkomst van de lokale partij: op Vlieland doen landelijke partijen niet meer mee". EenVandaag (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 February 2018.
^"CDA doet mee in de meeste gemeenteraadsverkiezingen". Binnenlands Bestuur (in Dutch). Retrieved 14 February 2018.
^"Gemeenteraad 21 maart 2018" (in Dutch). Verkiezingsuitslagen. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^"Amsterdam's new administration unveils plans for greener, more social city". Dutch News. DutchNews. 14 May 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
^Pieters, Janene (28 June 2018). "Femke Halsema chosen as new Amsterdam mayor". NL Times. NLTimes.NL. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
^"Gemeenteraad 21 maart 2018" (in Dutch). Verkiezingsuitslagen. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^"Gemeenteraad 21 maart 2018" (in Dutch). Verkiezingsuitslagen. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^"Gemeenteraad 21 maart 2018" (in Dutch). Verkiezingsuitslagen. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^"Gemeenteraad 21 maart 2018" (in Dutch). Verkiezingsuitslagen. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^"Gemeenteraad 21 maart 2018" (in Dutch). Verkiezingsuitslagen. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
External links
Media related to Dutch municipal elections 2018 at Wikimedia Commons