Weesp residents vote to merge with Amsterdam

In addition to the municipal elections and a referendum on a new law for the intelligence services, Weesp residents also had to vote in a referendum on whether their municipality should merge with Amsterdam or Gooise Meren on Wednesday. A majority voted for Amsterdam, Het Parool reports.

Amsterdam got 57.4 percent of the votes, Gooise Meren got 42.6 percent. Previously a large majority of the Weesp city council also opted for Amsterdam.

The decision to merge with Amsterdam will be confirmed during an extra city council meeting on Monday. 

This will initially only be a bureaucratic merge, that is intended to relieve Weesp's underutilized and overburdened civil service organization, according to Het Parool. In four years time the two municipalities can also merge administratively.