Wednesday, Netherlands went to the polling stations for the local elections. These five you should know about the outcome.
PvdA and VVD lose, D66 and local parties gain compared to four years ago.
The local parties are emerging since 1994 at the municipal level. In the nineties, these parties were only present in the southern provinces, but now they take 29.8 percent of the votes throughout the country.
Their growth is at the expense of the major national parties PvdA, VVD and – to a lesser extent- CDA. PvdA fell from 15.7 percent to 10.2 percent, VVD from 15.7 to 11.9 percent.
D66 continue their march after the elections of 2010. Four years ago, the party rose from 2.7 to 8.2 percent. This year the party received 11.8 percent of the votes.
SP booked a small gain from 4.1 percent in 2010 to 6.5 percent this year. GroenLinks decreases slightly from 6.7 to 5.2 percent.
PvdA loses seats in the major cities to D66.
PvdA was the largest party in the last four years in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Groningen, Eindhoven and Tilburg. During these elections only Eindhoven remained in the possession of PvdA.
The former PvdA cities have gone largely to D66. That means that D66 is now the largest party in five of the ten largest municipalities.
Local parties are expanding to the north, D66 prevails in Central Netherlands.
The rise of local parties is clearly visible on a map with the largest party in each municipality. In Noord-Brabant local parties expand their power, while many PbdA municipalities are taken in the north.
D66 is mostly large in the randstand since these elections. The CDA loses municipalities spread throughout the country.
The turnout was almost identical to the 2010 elections.
In advance, a historically low turnout was feared. Research firm Ipsos even polled at the request of the NOS a turnout of only 43 percent. Afterward, that turned out to be wrong.
Four years ago, 54.1 percent of eligible voters went to the polling station. This year that was 53.8 percent, slightly lower. Thus it is the lowest ever turnout during local elections.
Attendance is lowest in Noord-Brabant, and the highest in Zeeland and Friesland.
Zealand is the province with the highest percentage of voters. In that province 58.6 percent of the electorate effectively brought their votes. In contrast, Noord-Brabant is the province with the lowest turnout: 50.2 percent.
Schiedam with 42.6 percent is the municipality with the lowest turnout. Also in Beverwijk (43.1 percent), Enschede (43.5) and Tilburg (44) local elections aren’t popular.
Small municipalities Schiermonnikoog (85.3 percent) and Rozendaal (84.6) have the highest attendance rates. Also, the fishing village of Urk with 80.5 percent a high turnout.