Posters of political parties of the 2006 municipal elections in Delft

The Dutch municipal elections of 2006 were held on March 7, 2006. About 11.8 million people could vote in 419 municipalities. Due to local redistricting, 15 municipalities have already held elections in January 2006 and 24 municipalities will hold elections in November 2006. In some cities, such as Amsterdam, there were two elections, for the municipality and for the 'stadsdeelraden' (burrough councils). March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (67th in Leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... All provinces of the Netherlands are divided into municipalities (gemeenten), together 467 (2005); among these we can distinguish: those comprising one main city, town or village with the same name as the municipality, and possibly some additional villages; for example Utrecht, comprising the city Utrecht and the villages De Meern... There are several terms used in Dutch politics which are not easily translated into English. ...

Results

Official results will be announced on March 9, 2006 (official site), but preliminary results show that PvdA (Labour Party) has obtained the most votes and seats, more than making good the losses of the 2002 elections. The Socialistische Partij almost doubled in size, partly due to its participation in more municipalities than in 2002. The CDA, VVD, D66 all had noticeable losses, which may in part be caused by dissatisfaction with the current national government, of which they are the coalition partners. Overall, local parties of the Leefbaar type lost out as well after some success during the previous elections. March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (69th in Leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Belgian political party of the same name, see Partij van de Arbeid (Belgium). ... The Socialist Party (Dutch: Socialistische Partij) is a socialist party in the Netherlands. ... The Christen Democratisch Appèl (Abbriviated: CDA, English: Christian-Democratic Appeal) is a Dutch christian-democratic political party. ... The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... Democraten 66 (D66), is a social liberal party in the Netherlands. ... Leefbaar is a political movement in the Netherlands, started by Pim Fortuyn, who later formed LPF. It is not a party by itself but consists of a national branch, Leefbaar Nederland and many municipal branches, the most famous and most successfull of which is Leefbaar Rotterdam. ...

The following results are as yet incomplete because 24 of the 443 municipalities will have the elections in November (due to redistricting). In the 419 municipalities of the March elections the 8861 seats were filled as follows

It should be noted that, although the above shows the total results for the whole of the Netherlands, this has no official effect on national politics. It is often seen as an indication for it, but the issues and the parties that participate at the two levels don't always coincide. For example, SP got almost twice as many seats because they participated in almost twice as many municipalities as it did in 2002, which will in part explain their success, but even so, they still didn't participate in all municipalities, so not everyone could vote for them. However, since this comparison is often made, a larger scale poll was held, showing that the government parties would have lost 17 seats in parliament if national elections would have been held on that day (with CDA losing 13 seats) and the left wing parties would have each won seats; PvdA +7, SP +8 and GreenLeft +2. This is fairly similar to the election results and a confirmation of polls showing a possible majority (and thus coalition) for the three left-wing parties, which would be a first in the Netherlands and may be a reaction to what they call the present 'right-wing winter'. The Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), or Labour Party, is a social democratic political party in the Netherlands. ... The Christen Democratisch Appèl (Abbriviated: CDA, English: Christian-Democratic Appeal) is a Dutch christian-democratic political party. ... The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... The ChristianUnion (ChristenUnie) is a relatively young political party in the Netherlands. ... The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP, literally Politically Reformed Party) is a Dutch constitutional theocratic political party following the conservative Christian principles, in the tradition of the Dutch Reformed Church. ... GroenLinks (GL, GreenLeft) is a political party in the Netherlands. ... The Socialist Party (Dutch: Socialistische Partij) is a socialist party in the Netherlands. ... Leefbaar is a political movement in the Netherlands, started by Pim Fortuyn, who later formed LPF. It is not a party by itself but consists of a national branch, Leefbaar Nederland and many municipal branches, the most famous and most successfull of which is Leefbaar Rotterdam. ... Democraten 66 (D66), is a social liberal party in the Netherlands. ... The Frisian National Party (Frisian: Frysk Nasjonale Party) is a political party based in the Dutch province of Friesland. ... Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn) is a political party in the Netherlands. ... New Communist Party of the Netherlands (Nieuwe Communistische Partij Nederland) was founded in 1989 by a group of CPN-members who refused to join the GroenLinks (Green Left) together with the rest of the CPN. NCPN is mainly based in the Groningen province, where there is a strong communist tradition. ... Michiel Smit Nieuw Rechts (New Right) is a nationalistic Dutch political party, founded by Michiel Smit in 2003, History Michiel Smit was secretary of Pim Fortuyns local Leefbaar Rotterdam party. ...

The 'forgotten winner' (who recieved little media attention) was ChristenUnie (CU), who were allied with SGP in many municipalities, but represented the winning part with 420 seats (SGP has always had a very steady following). Leader André Rouvoet now says that this alliance might no longer be a good idea because precisely there where SGP refused an alliance because CU had a woman in their list was where CU grew. SGP's attitude towards women brushes off badly on CU. The ChristenUnie (Christians Union) is a relatively young political party in the Netherlands. ... The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP, literally Politically Reformed Party) is a Dutch constitutional theocratic political party following the conservative Christian principles, in the tradition of the Dutch Reformed Church. ... André Rouvoet is the political leader of the ChristenUnie, a Dutch political party. ...

D66 has been losing for 12 years now. It seems like they half in size every time they participate in a coalition. A national coalition, that is, and D66 had done their best to focus the attention on local issues to avoid this. In 2005, D66 minister Pechtold had proposed to spread municipal elections to avoid the debates by national politicians, which are in part cause of this, but that was stopped by coalition partner CDA.

Media attention before election day was manifested around Rotterdam, where the late Pim Fortuyn's Leefbaar Rotterdam was a surprise winner in 2002, knocking PvdA out of the coalition for the first time since WWII. But now, PvdA even gained more seats than they had before 2002, and became the largest party once again. Leefbaar Rotterdam came second and has already made clear it is not willing to enter a coalition with the Labour party, making the formation of a coalition difficult because all other parties are small (less than 10% of the votes). For other places named Rotterdam, see Rotterdam (disambiguation) Rotterdam ( (help· info)), located in the province of South Holland, is the second largest municipality in the Netherlands (after Amsterdam). ... Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (surname pronounced somewhat like for-TOYN, IPA: ), (February 19, 1948 – May 6, 2002), was a controversial, openly gay, charismatic politician in the Netherlands who formed his own party Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn or LPF). ... Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam) is a political party in the large Dutch city of Rotterdam. ... For the Belgian political party of the same name, see Partij van de Arbeid (Belgium). ... Leefbaar Rotterdam (Livable Rotterdam) is a political party in the large Dutch city of Rotterdam. ...

In these 419 municipalities, percentages of over 30% were reached almost only by PvdA (in 64 municipalities, mostly in the northern provinces, especially Groningen and Friesland) and CDA (59 times, mostly in southern provinces). Percentages over 40% were reached in 29 municipalities, again almost exclusively by PvdA (12) and CDA (10). Absolute majorities (over 50%), which would not require a coalition, are a rarity in a parliamentary democracy with proportional representation and occurred only twice. PvdA won an absolute majority in Winschoten, Groningen province with 49.7% of the votes and 9 out of 17 seats in the council, and CDA in Tubbergen, Overijssel province with 58.3% of the vote and 12 out of 19 seats in the council. Groningen can refer to: A province of the Netherlands. ... Capital Leeuwarden Queens Commissioner drs. ... Proportional representation, also known as full representation, is an electoral system in which the overall votes are reflected in the overall outcome of the body or bodies of representatives. ... Winschoten (Gronings: Winschoot) is a municipality and city in the northeast of the Netherlands. ... The flag of Groningen Groningen is the northeast province of the Netherlands with a typical dialect (Gronings) with regional nuances. ... Tubbergen is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. ... Flag of Overijssel Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. ...

Half the people have voted for the person at the top of the list. One third have voted for someone they met personally. The enormous rise of SP in some municipalities presented several candidates with a problem because they have to take a seat in the council but can't combine it with their 'normal' jobs.

Campaign

Polls showed a major shift in the issues. In 2006, people mentioned employment, poverty, traffic, housing and education, largely the issues that left wing parties focused on. The issues of immigrant integration and safety, which were so important in 2002 and led to the success of the Leefbaar parties, played a minor role this time. In Nijmegen, with its all-left coalition, people's sense of safety has risen from 21% to 52% since that coalition came to power, illustrating that this is not just a right wing issue. The biggest shift among lower incomes was from the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) to the Socialist Party (SP), probably caused by the first two issues. Leefbaar is a political movement in the Netherlands, started by Pim Fortuyn, who later formed LPF. It is not a party by itself but consists of a national branch, Leefbaar Nederland and many municipal branches, the most famous and most successfull of which is Leefbaar Rotterdam. ... The Christen Democratisch Appèl (Abbriviated: CDA, English: Christian-Democratic Appeal) is a Dutch christian-democratic political party. ... The Socialist Party (Dutch: Socialistische Partij) is a socialist party in the Netherlands. ...

A major issue in the campaign of the right wing VVD was to advise people not to vote for the social-democratic PvdA. This was done in such a manner that PvdA leader Wouter Bos declared the VVD had been the best campaigner for the PvdA. He said about the VVD leader that "every time van Aartsen opens his mouth, we gain another seat". The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... For the Belgian political party of the same name, see Partij van de Arbeid (Belgium). ... Wouter Bos (born July 14, 1963) is a Dutch politician who is currently leader of the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) and member of parliament. ...

Voter turnout

Voter turnout across the Netherlands was around 58%, slightly more than in the 2002 municipal elections. Delfzijl was said to have the lowest turnout of the whole country, with 47.3% but this was due to 22% of the cast Delfzijl votes being blank, as a form of protest against the political mismanagement that entangled the city last year. The Delfzijl turnout with the blank votes included was 61.1%. The real lowest turnouts were in the major cities Eindhoven and The Hague, each with 47.5%. The highest turnouts are traditionally in smaller communities and especially at the Wadden islands in the North. The highest turnout this year was at Ameland with 87.3%. Satellite image of the Ems estuary showing the location of Delfzijl (left bank, center) Delfzijl is a municipality and city in the northeast of the Netherlands. ... Eindhoven is a municipality and a city located in the province of Noord-Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, originally at the confluence of the Dommel and Gender brooks. ... Arms of The Hague The Hague (with capital T; Dutch: officially s-Gravenhage, commonly Den Haag) is the third-largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 472,087 (January 1, 2005) (700,000 in the larger metropolitan area) and an area of approximately 100... The Wadden is a coastal region stretching from the north-west of the Netherlands through Germany to the west of Denmark. ... Ameland (Frisian: It Amelân) is a municipality and one of the West Frisian Islands off the north coast of the Netherlands. ...

People of foreign origin (known in the Netherlands as allochtonen) constitute about 2.2 million of the constituency of 11.2 million. Most are of German origin (320.000) and about half of non-western origin, most notably from Surinam (225.000) and Turkey (220.000). Voter turnout among allochtones was higher than previously and many have voted PvdA. Allochtoon (plural: Allochtonen) is a Dutch language word, literally meaning originating from elsewhere. It is defined as the opposite of the word autochtoon (in English, autochthonous or autochtone) literally meaning originating from here. In current Dutch society the word has various meanings. ...

Aftermath

VVD fractievoorzitter Jozias van Aartsen has announced that since his party lost quite some votes, while he had had high hopes to gain some (overall outcome for the VVD was less than 14% this time), he will retire from the leadership. He will remain in the Tweede Kamer. Former party leader Hans Wiegel, who had hinted at returning to lead the party in the 2007 general election announced he would not seek a return to politics. A likely candidate to succeed van Aartsen as political leader is Mark Rutte, the current staatssecretaris for higher education and science. He is seen as a representative for the more left-wing ('social liberal') side of VDD (although he himself denies this), illustrated by the fact that he does not wear a necktie, which, he says, illustrates that the VVD is for all people, not just an elite group. The Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD), literally Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy, is a free market liberal party in the Netherlands. ... Politics of the Netherlands takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy, where the prime minister of the Netherlands is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system with about 15 parties at national elections. ... Jozias Johannes van Aartsen (born December 25, 1947 in The Hague) is a Dutch politician and member of the liberal Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). ... The Tweede Kamer (second chamber) is the lower house of the Staten-Generaal, the parliament in the Netherlands. ... Hans Wiegel (born July 16, 1941) is a Dutch politician and member of the liberal Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy. ... Elections in the Netherlands for the Tweede Kamer of Parliament The next Dutch general election is scheduled to be held on May 16, 2007. ... There are several terms used in Dutch politics which are not easily translated into English. ...

For CDA an important part of the campaign was that regional and national politics are two separate things. For this reason, premier Balkenende did not participate (much) in the campaign and declared after the elections that the CDA would not change its national policy. CDA stands for: .cda is a filename extension for a CD Audio Track Shortcut. ...

D66 fractievoorzitter Lousewies van der Laan remarked that this was the tenth election in a row (over 12 years) that D66 lost seats and that this time they would not seek the cause in external factors but within the party itself. People no longer know what D66 stands for. An example was the wavering stance of D66 on the Afghanistan mission debates in December and January, first opposing it and then going along with it. d66 may refer to Democrats 66, a Dutch political party d66 (die), a dice roll used in some old wargames and RPGs This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Lousewies van der Laan is a dutch politician for the left liberal Democrats 66 party. ...

Coalitions

There used to be a time limit to the duration of coalition talks, but that has been dropped, so the formations may take a long time.

The combination of the three left wing parties PvdA, GroenLinks and SP that already formed a coalition in Nijmegen (which was consequently nicknamed Havana on the Waal) has gained a majority in atleast 39 municipalities, including 7 of the 12 largest municipalities and 20 of the 60 municipalities with an electorate over 50.000, including the two biggest cities in CDA stronghold Limburg, Maastricht and Heerlen. However, although this combination is close to 50% of the seats in many municipalities where all three participated, a majority is in most cases only just not possible or too narrow to be comfortable. The biggest majority was in the small Groningen municipality of Pekela (11 out of 15), but also in major cities like Amsterdam (33 out of 45 seats), Nijmegen (24 out of 39), Utrecht (27 out of 45), Groningen (24 out of 39), Haarlem (22 out of 39) and Arnhem (23 out of 39) there are large majorities for PvdA, SP and GroenLinks. It is noteworthy that in Arnhem, that was often juxtaposed to nearby Nijmegen, such a coalition has now also become possible, although the existing very broad coalition hasn't lost its majority.
Another factor here is that the local branches confer with the national party because decisions at the two levels have to be harmonised. Nationally, PvdA is doing well, but in some municipalities too left wing a coalition may not go down well with some people, which may have negative effects on PvdA during the 2007 national elections.
In Amsterdam, where this coalition would be biggest, SP have already left the talks, but PvdA and GroenLinks still have a majority of 27 out of 45 seats. In Arnhem the three parties are talking but there are differences between PvdA and SP over how money should be spent (housing or redistribution). Nijmegen (Zuid-Gelders: Nèhméége) (obsolete spellings: Nijmwegen, Nymegen, Nieumeghen — known in German as Nimwegen, French as Nimègue, and Spanish as Nimega) is a municipality and a city in the east of the Netherlands, near the German border. ... Havana (Spanish in full: San Cristóbal de La Habana, usually shortened to just La Habana; UN/LOCODE: CU HAV) is the capital of Cuba and, with a population of 2. ... Edited Satellite image of the Rhine-Waal fork, showing the beginning of river Waal (green). ... Limburg is the name of two different adjoining provinces: Limburg (Netherlands) in the south of the Netherlands, its capital is Maastricht. ... Maastricht (Limburgish and city dialect: Mestreech; French: Maestricht) is a municipality, and capital of the province of Limburg. ... Heerlen is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands and the second biggest city in the province of Limburg. ... Pekela is a municipality in the northeastern Netherlands. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 742,951(1 January 2005) Coordinates 52°22′N 4°54′E Website www. ... Utrecht refers to various cities and areas: A province of the Netherlands A city in the Netherlands, and capital of the province of the same name A (historic) bishopric of the Netherlands An agglomeration in the Netherlands that includes the city of Utrecht A city in South Africa, in the... Groningen can refer to: A province of the Netherlands. ... Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, capital of the North Holland province. ... Arnhem is a municipality and a city in the east of the Netherlands, located on the Lower Rhine, and the capital of the Gelderland province. ...

In Goes, the christian parties CDA and SGP/CU formed a coalition with VVD on the day after the elections ("at record breaking speed"), without consulting the PvdA. This led to quite an uproar because it is customary that coalition talks are started by the biggest party, which was the PvdA. During inauguration hundreds gathered in front of the city hall, throwing eggs. The new opposition demonstratively left the city hall after the inauguration and a VVD member almost attacked a protester. Goes is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands, in Zuid-Beveland. ...