The local elections of March 2014 showed a big victory for the local political parties. While the ruling social democrats and liberals lost ten percent of their votes, the local parties conquered one third of the seats in municipal councils. An increasing number of citizens feel these parties are better able to represent their voice in local government.
The Netherlands counts 403 municipalities. Every four year, Dutch citizens vote for their local councils. In the past, national political parties used to dominate local elections, with most votes for the social democrats in the cities and for the Christian democrats in rural areas. About 20 years ago, the first local parties were established in The Netherlands, mostly in remote provinces. These parties were operating independently from the national level and focused mainly on local issues. Since then, many new local political parties were established, also in the cities, and elections have shown an increasing number of people supporting them.
