Municipality election results
With every election, there is always at least something that surprises you (or maybe not in this case). Try as people might to predict all of the results, they don’t always go as planned, for parties and citizens alike. So here are 3 things that may have surprised you with this years election results.
1) Groep de Mos won in The Hague
Well this left a lot of political upset within The Hague and was a very surprising result. MP Richard de Mos, who was a former PVV member ended up being the biggest independent party in The Hague, much to everybody’s surprise. D66 were kicked out of the hot seat this time around. It’s funny because by not being elected for past parliamentary elections, this caused a rift between him and Geert Wilders, causing him to start a rival party. Well, that somehow pulled off this year.
2) Leefbaar won in Rotterdam
Okay, so this has happened many times before, but this time round there was a lot of promise that it was going to be different. Keep an eye out for Rotterdam they said – it’s going to be an interesting one. Turns out that Leefbaar are still the largest party in Rotterdam. They did lose 3 seats, but everyone was expecting a much bigger loss this time. What on earth happened there? It was a surprising non-surprise.
3) Geert Wilders underachieved (sort-of)
Geert Wilders did ‘OK’ – he gained a seat in every municipality they signed up for (he only tried in 3 municipalities last time), but you can tell he’s secretly disappointed considering he tried all over the country. Overall, they haven’t done great, in comparison to their promise. The same goes for VVD – although they gained slightly, they haven’t ‘trumped’ like promised (get it). It definitely helps also that Groep de Mos more than likely stole Wilders votes in The Hague. Although it’s disappointing to see the parties gain some form of momentum, they are still underachieving to what they’d hope. So I guess that’s some positivity that we can take from that. We haven’t had a Brexit or Trump s**tstorm just yet anyway. Geert Wilders is at bay… for now.
What has surprised you in the election this year? Let us know in the comments! Also, don’t forget to join our Facebook group for more Dutch stuff… you know you wanna.
