Amsterdam’s planned Erotic Center now uncertain as political support cools
The D66 faction in Amsterdam has pulled its support from plans for the controversial Erotic Center. The party’s concept program for the 2026 municipal election does not mention the term “erotic center” at all, making the arrival of the central workplace for sex workers extremely uncertain, Parool reports.
The newspaper got a look at the Amsterdam D66’s election program, which will be presented on Saturday. It states that the party wants “several small-scale locations” for sex workers, supplemented by “love hotels” and the possibility to work safely from home. “Where freedom and emancipation of sex workers are paramount,” the program reads. “This way, we guarantee a diverse range of safe sex workspaces at home without being dependent on a single project.”
With that, the D66 explicitly distances itself from Mayor Femke Halsema’s plan for a single new center for 100 sex workers on Europaboulevard, which she has been pushing since 2019.
The D66 supported this plan in recent years, both in its previous election program and in the city council. The change in course means that there is no longer majority support for the erotic center in the city council. GroenLinks and the PvdA appear to be the only parties still supporting the plan. Almost the entire opposition has been against it for years.
Sources involved told Parool that the D66 informed Halsema about its change of course earlier this month. According to them, she resents the party’s U-turn. Officially, Halsema’s spokesperson told Parool that the mayor won’t comment. “Election programs are the responsibility of the political parties,” the spokesperson said.
The D66 declined to comment to the newspaper on why it decided to pull support from the erotic center now. The unofficial narrative within the party is that the D66 felt bound by coalition agreements, but can abandon that line now that the elections are approaching. Sources told Parool that the D66 lost confidence in the project because it has become too uncertain, too expensive, and too politically controversial.
