After a long counting session, Amsterdam has proven yet again that it always falls to the left.
GroenLinks has topped Amsterdam’s gemeenteraadsverkiezingen (city council elections), securing ten seats in the 45-seat council.
Held on March 18, the election saw nearly 47% of all eligible voters in Amsterdam cast their vote. According to Het Parool, this is only a slight uptick from the 46.6% turnout in 2022.
With all ballots counted at the party level, Amsterdam Gemeente has published the results.
Who were in the top three?
GroenLinks took 17.9% of the vote, translating to ten seats in Amsterdam’s city council. This comes as a gain of two seats compared to the last election.
D66 came second winning 16.1% of voters and eight seats: one up from 2022.
Meanwhile, the PvdA finished third at 14.1% with seven seats, dropping two from the last municipal election.
Despite PvdA’s little dip, the top three parties have governed Amsterdam for the past four years.
Now, they collectively hold 25 seats, which is enough to maintain a working majority in the city council.
Party time
While GroenLinks and PvdA ran jointly as GroenLinks-PvdA in some municipalities, they ran separately in Amsterdam.
Combined, the two parties hold 17 seats in the capital.
Supporters of both parties had gathered at Skatecafé in Amsterdam-Noord to await the results on Wednesday night.
According to Het Parool, Zita Pels of GroenLinks declared: “Amsterdam was left, is left and will remain left.”
Leading up to election day, Pels ran a campaign against landlords in Amsterdam who charge too much rent, refuse to return deposits, and fail to carry out maintenance.
The party even opened a hotline for residents paying too much rent.
Where the rest of the council stands
The centre-right liberal party, VVD, stands as the biggest opposition party with six seats.
Partij voor de Dieren (Party for the Animals) held onto its three seats. Among smaller parties, JA21, Volt, and Denk each retained their two seats.
Meanwhile, the far-right party Forum voor Democratie (FvD) kept one seat on the city council. So did the centrist party Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
A full candidate-level count follows on March 21, with the definitive official result due on March 27. Stay tuned!
Did you vote in Amsterdam’s city council elections? Let us know what you think of the results.
Nothing changes in Amsterdam. Local residents are ignored in favour of Big Headline policies and unrealistic aims. They will never build enough affordable housing until they realise private finance needs some incentive to do it. Money will be thrown at badly thought through environmental projects which will make life worse for citizens not better. There will never be good government here until there is a more balanced Council