FvD and its split offs responsible for most absenteeism in Provincial Councils by far

Provincial Council members of the FvD and its split-offs were by far the most absent at Provincial Council meetings in the past four years. With only 15 percent of the seats, they accounted for over a third of all absences, far more than other parties proportionally, NOS reports.

FvD was the big winner of the provincial elections in 2019, winning 86 seats. Now, the party has only 23 left due to all kinds of scandals leading to FvD members leaving the faction to form their own parties, lists, and groups. The biggest FvD-split-offs are Groep Otten, JA21, OCL in Overijssel, and SVL in Limburg. There are also another about 20 former FvD members that have seats on the Provincial Council as a group, list, or faction.

Since the twelve provinces’ Provincial Councils took office in March 2019, people were absent from meetings 1,296 times. FvD, or one of its countless offshoots, accounted for 444, or 34.3 percent, of these absences. Representatives of DENK, which won four seats on the Councils, were also absent relatively often. However, it should be noted that 17 of the 41 DENK absences were one member - Hanane Bittich, who split off from the party in October 2020 after a long absence.

FvD and its split-offs also dominate the list of the most absent individual Provincial Council members. Nine of the top ten most absent members are FvD members or former members. The tenth is Hanane Bittich, formerly of DENK.

FvD told NOS in response to the figures that its members of the Provincial Councils are not professional politicians and “give a broader interpretation to membership of the councils than just the presence in committee meetings.”

NOS’s research also showed that absenteeism was by far the lowest in Friesland. The province had 52 absences out of 1,935 times that council members met. That is an absenteeism rate of 2.7 percent. Groningen and Utrecht were also well below the national average of 5.5 percent. Drenthe had the most absences at 7.2 percent.