GroenLinks easily wins 2026 Amsterdam City Council election; Coalition gained one seat

Amsterdam has finished counting its votes, and GroenLinks is the largest party in the capital by some distance after yesterday’s municipal election, AT5 reports.

GroenLinks won two seats, bringing its total to 10. D66 is in second place with 8 seats, one more than in 2022. The PvdA follows with 7 seats, two fewer than in 2022. The city coalition, therefore, came out of this election with one more seat than in 2022.

GroenLinks got 17.9 percent of the votes, D66 received 16.1 percent, and PvdA secured 14.1 percent.

Except for the seat exchange between the coalition parties, very little changed in the Amsterdam city council distribution in yesterday’s election. The VVD received 10.9 percent of the votes, securing 6 seats, one more than in 2022.

PvdD (2), JA21 (2), Volt (2), DENK (2), CDA (1), and FvD (1) all retained the seats they had. SP and BIJ1 both lost a seat. SP is down to one seat. BIJ1 has two seats, but entered the elections with 0 seats. The party won 3 seats in 2022, but lost them when council members split from the party. The parties that emerged from this split-off - Partij voor Morgen and De Vonk - did not win any seats.

GroenLinks and PvdA ran separately in Amsterdam in yesterday’s election, but plan to enter the city council as a single party. They jointly celebrated the election results on Wednesday evening. “A third of the city voted for us,” PvdA lead candidate Sofyan Mbarki told AT5. GroenLinks lead candidate Zita Pels added: “Amsterdam was left-wing, is left-wing, and will remain left-wing!”

D66 lead candidate Melanie van der Horst was “insanely happy” about her party’s second place. “We have grown. That means that with our optimism, we can push the city even further forward.” Van der Horst said she was keen to start talks with GroenLinks and PvdA to form a coalition together again.