Dutch PM Rutte Relatively Unscathed by Mixed Local Elections

(Bloomberg) -- Approval for Mark Rutte’s four-party coalition government slipped in local elections on Wednesday in a first test for the Dutch prime minister’s cabinet since being sworn in last October.

A first reading of exit polls for three of the four largest Dutch cities and a couple of “bellwether” municipalities across the country shows the VVD’s gains would fail to offset steep losses from the centrist D66 coalition partner, which lost the top spot in the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht to the Greens.

Rutte’s liberal VVD party could even become the largest national party in municipal elections, taking the torch from Christian-democrat coalition partner CDA.

“These preliminary results are looking good,” Rutte said at a party gathering in The Hague. “The trend seems to suggest that for the first time, we’d become the largest Dutch party in local councils,” he added, referring to “beautiful gains” in The Hague, where the party might even double in size, and overtake its D66 partner as the largest local party.

Local parties, which in the last municipal elections in 2014 captured the largest share of the vote country-wide, are seen gaining further, confirming the popularity of parties that don’t run in national elections.

The first election that could impact the ruling coalition’s ability to govern will come in 2019, when Dutch voters head to polls in provincial elections, which indirectly determine the Senate.

The ballot comes a year after an inconclusive March general election left the Dutch political landscape splintered, forcing Rutte into an alliance that gives him a one-seat majority in both houses of parliament.

Overall losses by the coalition could limit Rutte’s room to maneuver as the Dutch push back against euro-area reforms supported by Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron met Rutte on Wednesday in The Hague ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels Thursday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Wout Vergauwen in Amsterdam at wvergauwen@bloomberg.net, John Hermse in The Hague at jhermse@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lukas Strobl at lstrobl@bloomberg.net, Robert Jameson

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