Most Mayors from CDA
THE HAGUE, 27/07/13 - Although the CDA has halved at each of the last two general elections, the Christian democrats still provide the most mayors, according to figures from the home affairs ministry.
The CDA is now only the fifth biggest party in the Lower House with just 13 seats. But over one-third of the Dutch mayors (122 out of 358) come from this party. The conservatives (VVD) and Labour (PvdA) come next with 96 and 86 mayors respectively. The home affairs ministry published a review on Friday of the Dutch mayors, their political affiliation, age, time in the job and sex. The review shows that in local government, the power is still firmly in the hands of the three parties CDA, VVD and PvdA. Together, the three parties provide over 80 percent of the 358 mayors in the Netherlands. They are followed at a considerable distance by centre-left D66 with 23 mayors, small Christian party ChristenUnie with 11, leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) with 8 and the smallest Christian party SGP with 6. The Party for Freedom (PVV) and Socialist Party (SP), both bigger than the CDA in the Lower House, have no people in the highest positions at local level, which are not filled in the Netherlands via elections but rather via appointments. The PvdA reigns as by tradition in the big cities. Seven out of 10 mayors in the 10 biggest cities come from the PvdA stable (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Groningen, Breda). The VVD has mayors in The Hague (the country’s third city) and Almere (seventh). The CDA appears only once in the Top 10, at the bottom with Nijmegen. The CDA supplies the oldest mayor, Koos Karssen of Maassluis, born on 14 October 1944. The longest-sitting mayor is also a Christian democrat: Ton Rombouts, mayor of Den Bosch since 1 September 1996. The SGP's Pieter Verhoeve, born on 27 July 1981, became the country’s youngest mayor on June 2012, in Oudewater. The review shows that heading a municipality is still primarily a male occupation. Only 70 of the 358 mayors are women. |