Municipal elections were held on 16 March 2022 in 333

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. This election determined the composition of the municipal councils for the following four years.

Background

In the previous municipal elections, local political parties won by far the most votes and seats. Nationally, all local political parties won a total of 29% of the votes and around a third of municipal council seats. Local parties have seen a steady rise since the 1990s and in

Vlieland (; ) is a municipality and island in the northern Netherlands. The municipality of Vlieland is the second most sparsely populated municipality in the Netherlands, after Schiermonnikoog. Vlieland is one of the West Frisian Islands, lying in t ...

there are only local parties that participate. Of all national political parties, the

Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal ( , CDA) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in the Netherlands. Formed as a federation in 1975 by the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and the Christian Historical ...

(CDA) will contest the most municipal elections; the party will be on the ballot in all but five (

Diemen Diemen () is a town and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality with a population of in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) southeast of Amsterdam's Amsterdam ...

Ouder-Amstel Ouder-Amstel () is a municipality in the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the f ...

Rozendaal Rozendaal () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. The town, next to Arnhem and Velp, Gelderland, Velp, is known for the Rozendaal Castle (''Kasteel Rosendael'') ...

and

Schiermonnikoog Schiermonnikoog (; ) is an island, a municipality and national park in the Northern Netherlands. Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands, and is part of the province of Friesland. It is situated between the islands of Ameland and Rot ...

). The

People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( , VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party (Netherl ...

(VVD) comes in second, contesting in 317 elections, while

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; D66) is a social liberal and progressive political party in the Netherlands, which is positioned on the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Li ...

participates in 289 elections. The Labour Party (PvdA) will participate in 303 elections, and

GroenLinks (, ; GL) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Neth ...

in 229, many of which are joint lists between the two parties. Meanwhile, the

ChristianUnion The Christian Union ( ; CU) is a Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CU is a centrist party, maintaining more progressive stances on economic, immigration and environmental issues while holding more socially conservative ...

runs in 175 and the

Reformed Political Party The Reformed Political Party ( , SGP) is a conservative Reformed ChristianThese sources describe the SGP as a Calvinist (Reformed Christian) political party: * * * * political party in the Netherlands. The SGP is the oldest political party in the ...

(SGP) in 96, with these parties also having many joint lists. The

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

participates in 86,

Forum for Democracy Forum for Democracy ( ; FvD) is a far-right political party in the Netherlands, originally founded as a think tank by Thierry Baudet and Henk Otten in 2015 before registering itself as a party the following year. The FvD first participated i ...

(FvD), which had previously only participated in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, has expanded significantly to participate in 50 elections. The

Party for Freedom The Party for Freedom ( , PVV) is a right-wing populist, far-right political party in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders is the founder, party leader, and sole registered member of the party. Founded in 2006 as the successor to Wilders' one-ma ...

(PVV) participates in 31,

Party for the Animals The Party for the Animals ( , PvdD) is a List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. The PvdD was founded in 2002 as a single-issue party for animal ...

(PvdD) in 30, DENK in 20,

50PLUS 50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a list of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands that advocates List of pensioners' parties, pensioners' interests with a Centrism, centrist political line. The party was founded in ...

in 19 and

BIJ1 BIJ1 (; ), formerly known as Article 1 (), is a political party in the Netherlands. It was founded in Amsterdam in 2016 by Sylvana Simons, a politician who was formerly briefly connected to another party, Denk (political party), Denk. Edson Olf ...

in 5. There are also 3 national parties participating for the first time in municipal elections, BvNL in 20 municipalities,

Volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...

in 10, and JA21 only in

. Twelve municipalities did not have elections on 16 March due to mergers.

Electoral system

Municipal councils are elected using

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

. The number of seats depends on the population of the municipality, ranging from nine seats for municipalities with a population below 3,000, to 45 seats for municipalities with a population over 200,000. All people above the age of 18, who are registered in a municipality, and have not been excluded from voting following a court's decision are eligible to vote. Dutch citizenship is not required to be eligible to vote for municipal elections, non-EU nationals who have legally resided in the Netherlands for at least five years and EU citizens are also eligible to vote.

National

Opinion polling

Results

Amsterdam

Opinion polling

Results

Rotterdam

Opinion polling

Results

The Hague

Opinion polling

Results

Utrecht

Opinion polling

Results

Groningen

Opinion polling

Results

Nijmegen

Results

Notes

References

External links

* {{Dutch elections 2022 elections in the Netherlands

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

March 2022 in the Netherlands