Students win in local council elections

In most student cities, GroenLinks is the largest party, but student party STIP has won the municipal elections in Delft. Other student parties gained or kept their seats. Leefbaar Rotterdam remains the largest party in Rotterdam.

In Delft, Studenten Techniek in Politiek (STIP) attracts 15.8 percent of the votes, making this party the winner of the elections. However, this is not entirely reflected in the distribution of seats: STIP, D66 and GroenLinks all end up with six seats.

“This is unbelievable”, said STIP party chair Ida de Boer to Omroep West. “I’m very proud that we got the most votes. We’re going to shine.” STIP is already in the coalition.

First time

Studenten voor Leiden gained two seats in the council. It was the first time that the party participated, with spearheads such as housing, sustainability and hospitality. Perhaps at the expense of D66, which is no longer the largest. GroenLinks stands at the top in Leiden.

The Groningen party Student en Stad rose from one to three seats. Perhaps it won those seats from GroenLinks. That party remains the largest, but delivers two seats.

Student en Starter (Utrecht) has retained its two seats and so has Wageningen Connect, a party for students, young people, internationals and newcomers with a student as its list leader.

GroenLinks

GroenLinks is the largest party in most student cities, namely in Eindhoven, Groningen, Leiden, Nijmegen, Tilburg, Utrecht and Wageningen.

Remarkable is the big gain for the PvdA in Amsterdam, which goes from five to nine seats and passes GroenLinks (from ten to eight seats). In Maastricht, the Senioren Partij won and in Enschede, Burger Belangen came in first.

In Rotterdam, Leefbaar remains the largest party with eleven seats. It is followed by VVD and GroenLinks with five and D66, PvdA and DENK with four seats.

Other student cities

Cities without a university, but with a large number of applied science students, often show a similar pattern. In Zwolle, GroenLinks and ChristenUnie are at the same level. GroenLinks is also number one in Arnhem and number two in Leeuwarden (behind the losing PvdA). But in Breda and Apeldoorn, the VVD is the largest. In Den Bosch, D66 passes the VDD as the largest party. In Deventer, the local party Gemeentebelang wins the elections by a wide margin.

The turnout was historically low: about fifty per cent. In Rotterdam, only 39 per cent of the voters went to the polls. Minister Bruins Slot (Ministry of the Interior) announced an investigation into the cause.