Record 225 aldermen resigned last year
Last year, 225 aldermen resigned. That is significantly higher than 2023’s 183 alderman resignations and a new record, according to an annual study by De Colelgetafel for Binnelands Bestuur. The most common reasons for stepping down were a political breach of trust, personal reasons, and poor health.
The Netherlands currently counts around 1,400 aldermen. Last year, 94 stepped down temporarily or permanently because of a political breach of trust. This number has been falling in recent years. Twenty years earlier, in 2004, 157 aldermen were forced to quit for political reasons.
44 aldermen resigned for personal reasons such as needing more time for their families, and private lives, or to reflect on a new career. 38 left for health reasons such as illness, exhaustion, a lack of energy, or excessive physical and mental strain. And 49 stepped down because they opted for another job or for other reasons, such as pregnancy or an interim contract coming to an end.
Jeroen Van Gool, director of the Aldermen’s Association, called the high number of resignations very worrying. Aldermen have seen their workload and tasks increase enormously in recent years, he told Nieuwsuur. “But the number of aldermen has not grown with it. The support has not grown with it. Working 60 to 70 hours a week has become the norm. That elastic will snap at some point.”
Aldermen manage a total of 43 billion euros in 370 municipalities. According to Dutch law, the number of aldermen must be 20 percent of the number of council seats. That means two aldermen for every ten council seats. The largest municipalities have a maximum of nine aldermen.
“Adjust that law,” Van Gool told the current affairs program. “Let the municipal council - just like the Cabinet with Ministers - decide for itself how many aldermen it needs.” That would also help coalition formation, he thinks. “If you have a coalition of five parties and you have only three aldermen, political support is more difficult than when each party can supply its own alderman.”
