Arnhem Central and Party for the Animals make gains at Arnhem, Volt and Forum are newcomers | Arnhem municipal elections 2022

This is evident from the preliminary results of the municipal elections. Animal Party grows from 2 to 3 seats plus 1 seat. VVD, ChristenUnie, PVV, SP and PvdA all lost seats. The Liberals now have 5 seats and are thus the size of the D66, the party whose support has remained the same. PvdA drops from 4 to 3 seats, SP from 3 to 2. CDA and Denk are consolidated into 2 seats.

With 75 percent of the votes counted, Arnhem Central appeared to be making huge profits as a local party, with 3 to 5 seats. With 100% of the vote counted, the number of seats remained at 4. Lea Manders of Arnhem Central attributes the profit in part to the “Bob Roelofs effect,” a reference to the famous Arnhemmer who is now an alderman on the council and who entered the election as party leader in Arnhem Central. Manders suspects that it is also possible that more people have started voting locally as a result of the growing discontent with national parties. The Roelofs were unable to attend the evening’s results, and had to stay home with Corona.

At GroenLinks, Party for Animals, D66 and Volt, they are convinced that the climate approach and transition to a sustainable community in Arnhem can now get a major boost, according to the first reactions. “The message of this result is that it must be more sustainable and green,” concludes Leo de Groot of For the Animals.

Kathleen Bokamp of GroenLinks believes that the war in Ukraine and dependence on Russian gas are making people realize more than ever that things need to change. “We’ve been working on the question of whether we can get off the gas for some time.” She also pointed out the importance of fighting poverty and equitable distribution of wealth. “I hope this result means that the Arnhemmers will give them the confidence to continue making society more social, fair and just over the next four years. There is a lot more coming our way in the coming years.”

For Volt Niels Schulten, the party leader, poverty and inequality of opportunity are a shockingly big problem in Arnhem. I sat at the polling station in Emerlo in Arnhem south. There you see, poverty contrasts sharply with the better neighborhoods of Arnhem Nord. We have to move towards a better distribution of prosperity in Arnhem. Many people don’t realize how big this gap is, and that requires awareness.”

During the evening results, everyone sympathized with the newcomer Volt. “I felt we were welcome to City Council with open arms,” ​​Schulten says. He sees his party as a potential role to improve the atmosphere at Arnhem Council, where parties have often met unnecessarily in the past. , resulting in a lot of old mischief. The latter resulted in the D66 losing confidence as a coalition partner. And Schulten followed suit. “We might be able to play it as a glue and as Harlemer oil,” he said, referring to an old-fashioned home remedy against all ailments.

Above all, Schulten is pleased, relieved, excited and grateful for the result achieved by the Volt. It is believed that the riot around Member of Parliament Nilufer Gundogan had a negative impact on the outcome. “I think we would have won three seats in Arnhem without that.”

Mattis Lauer of the 66 Democratic Party is pleased that his party retained the same number of seats. It already indicates that there is still something that can change in the game about the distribution of votes and the phenomenon of remaining seats. The experience in Arnhem shows that things can change just like that. This will become clear later, when the final result will be announced.”