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Ambtsketting
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Politics
CDA
democratically elected
House of Parliament
Huizen
majority in favor
mayor
MPs
publicly chosen mayor
survey
Sybrand Buma
Trouw
Van As
Tuesday, 11 March 2014 - 10:59

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Could city mayors be elected in NL?

One quarter of all council members is in favor of electing mayors. CDA members are the only ones who remain unconvinced by the stance of their party. The support for a publicly-elected mayor is growing. Trouw did a comparison study between a recent survey of 2655 council members, with the same survey that was done four years ago. The percentage of supporters rose from 16 to 25 percent. MPs in the country are far behind on this than in national politics. Since the CDA announced in February that they are now also in favor of an elected mayor, the House of Parliament is now in a majority for that option.CDA-leader Sybrand Buma said that the old, vague system is "on its last legs. We want an open election." A majority of almost 70 percent of the questioned council members would rather keep the current system, or a more democratic variant of it. In the current system, a mayor is chosen by the Crown, on advice of the municipal council. In practice, the advice of the council is always taken over. Two-fifths of the council members consider this a good system. Almost one third opts for the variant in which the appointment of a mayor also takes place formally through the council. Remarkable is that the support for a chosen mayor among CDA council members shows little growth. The national leader also came to a different insight. In four years, only 2 percent of the CDA members turned to the side of a chosen mayor. At first, 16 percent thought this was a good idea, and now it's 18. "It's very strange to me that my party has now spoken out for a chosen mayor", CDA council member Van As from Huizen says. "It is a solution for a problem that doesn't exist", said Van As. "Calling the procedure vague, like Sybrand Buma did, comes across a bit populist, I think, and harms the powers of a democratically chosen municipal council."

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