Wednesday, 9 April 2014 - 10:03
No PVV in Almere council
In Almere, the biggest party, the PVV, is not going to be part of the newly formed municipal council. Losing party PvdA, however, will. The PVV did not manage to connect with other parties due to the recent unrest from within the PVV.
The Almere council is now made up of D66, PvdA, Leefbaar Almere, SP and CDA, the Volkskrant reports on Wendesday. According to these parties, the PVV has nobody to blame but themselves for this poor showing.
PVV-fraction leader Toon van Dijk says that a leftist council will be "disastrous for the city."
The PVV seems to be slowly imploding after their party leader Geert Wilders made the risk of publicly discriminating against Moroccans, and encouraging his party's followers to do the same. After a long meeting, the fraction decided, bar one man, to take distance from the comments. They did remain members of the party.
The VVD is the only party who still conceded to have talks with the PVV, but broke off negotiations about a formation. After this decision, the PVV abandoned plans for formation, and the D66 took over.
The PvdA, although losing big in the municipal council elections, is now profiting from the PVV's misfortune. The social democrats lost three of their eight seats, but are still in the council. "Because of the mess that the PVV-characters are making, we are back in the council", says fraction leader John van der Pauw.
The VVD is not returning to the council. Fraction leader Miranda Joziasse tells Omroep Flevoland that she is disappointed and surprised.