The national party leaders were very excited on Wednesday evening to be satisfied with the results of the municipal elections. The Labor Party went the furthest. Lilianne Ploumen went completely crazy, we’ve never seen her like this before, and screamed into the microphone with a cracking voice that Amsterdam is turning red. And Mark Rutte explained in inimitable reasoning that the VVD has once again become the largest national party. But he concealed the loss of 145 seats.
It’s been the same thing for years, especially in council elections. There is never actually lost, by no one, which is mathematically impossible. The number of council seats is the same with some reclassifications as four years ago. So if someone wins, there must also be a loser. But loss is ignored or conveniently hidden away, because there is always a municipality where the game has won. The time when Jozias van Aartsen resigned as VVD leader because his party had lost 128 seats in the municipal elections are far behind us.
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Wopke Hoekstra, who has never said anything compelling, did not speak on Wednesday of ‘locally the worst result ever, which it is. According to Hoekstra, the 240 council seats that the CDA has lost made ‘a result better than expected’. It’s special that you can say something like that with a straight face, without flinching. It may have been because of previous polls that said they saw an even worse outlook: a halving. Then you will soon be satisfied with anything that looks a little better.
The Labor Party doubled the number of seats in the capital and became the largest there. The PvdA lost 2 seats across the Netherlands, a negligible loss indeed. But don’t give the impression, what Ploumen did, that the PvdA has made a comeback. The gain in Amsterdam is the personal achievement of a popular party leader in that municipality, just like Frans Timmermans single-handedly made the PvdA great in Europe. Ploumen should not take such victories after herself, she has no part in it.
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If there is a big loss, there is always a municipality where their own party has won. To show that things aren’t going nearly as bad as suggested. Although Lilian Marijnissen has lost five elections in a row – you wonder how much patience the SP still has with her – Jasper van Dijk reported with a wink that the party had won in Zwolle. She received 0.6 percent more votes than the last time, with which the party finished in eighth place (out of ten). You can only be happy with it.
There are two real winners: D66 (plus 17) and GroenLinks (plus 10). Sigrid Kaag and Jesse Klaver were not overly exuberant about this. They were happy, of course, but modest. Klaver was even surprised that, contrary to expectations, his party had managed to maintain and even expand the large profit of four years ago. Forum also gained 45 seats, but that was mainly because the party only participated in Amsterdam four years ago and now in more than 50 municipalities.
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Although there are no losers, they say that the parties that do qualify blame the low turnout, the war in Ukraine that prevented party leaders from campaigning, and low confidence in politics. It’s all true, but it doesn’t matter. In every election, there are circumstances that influence the voting process. We certainly don’t do it; it is not demonstrable, not then and not now.
There are winners, with the local parties proud and well ahead. Just like four years ago. The national parties should look into that.
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