the votes are in...

Yesterday was the nation-wide gemeenteraadverkiezingendag (municipal elections day). Citizens in all the municipalities in the entire country went to their local polling stations to cast their votes for their next municipal government.

The verpleeghuis (nursing home) where I volunteer on Wednesday afternoons was busier than usual. While this mostly had to do with the concert of visserliedjes, fisherman songs replete with accordion and heartfelt sentiments happening in the unusually crowded restaurant, at least a little of the foot-traffic was being directed to small room off the cafeteria where people could cast their vote. Later, when I was getting off the rush-hour ferry from Amsterdam Noord there was a man with a loud-horn telling Amsterdammers to remember to vote, and also to vote for GroenLinks (an amalgamated party of lefties). His group of people in vests were competing with people sporting Partij voor de Ardebeider (Labour party) vests in giving away last minute leaflets. Later in the evening, my speaking partner asked me if I'd like to come with him to the polling station, since he still needed to vote. We donned our coats and walked across the chilly street to the polling station in a nearby school. I couldn't vote, what with being Canadian and having only lived in Amsterdam for about 7 months, but I did enjoy the festive atmosphere and an early chocolade Pasei (chocolate Easter egg), while I waited for my friend to do his civic duty.

Today, however, the votes are all in - and almost everyone agrees that the results of the municipal elections that happened everywhere in the country yesterday (March 3rd) point to what to expect during the national elections come June 9th.

And what to expect, seems to be huge gains for the far-right populist Geert Wilders. In what has been a shrewd move by Wilders, his PVV ran only in Den Haag and Almere, where it swept the polls (though the results for Den Haag/ 's-Gravenhage aren't in officially yet according to the Amsterdamse daily Het Parool) coming in as the second largest party in both cities. If this is a sign of things to come for the Netherlands as a whole this summer, commentators predict that Wilders could even be the next Prime Minister!

The PVV wasn't the only party to make gains in the polls though, the D66 and GroenLinks (both lefty parties) also won more seats in municipalities across the country. And as to be expected, according to RNW, the "Christian Democrats (CDA) and Labour Party [PvdA], the two parties responsible for the fall of the Dutch cabinet two weeks ago, both lost a large number of seats." The results for Amsterdam really highlight these changes, although a few local parties also took some seats from the bigger parties.

So, while the media makes its own predictions for the future, I am thinking that it's going to be a pretty interesting few months for thinking about what it means to feel at home in the Netherlands. I fully anticipate having to pay a lot more attention to the news over the coming months as the various political parties work on perfecting their platforms and slogans, and duke it out in debates on the national stage. For now though, I need to pay attention to the episode of De Wereld Draait Door and their poking fun of yesterday's election coverage...