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An unusual political alliance is coming together in The Hague over a plan to change how politicians hold office. The biggest party in government and the largest opposition party both want to stop politicians from holding more than one elected position at once.
What is being proposed
Right now, Dutch politicians are allowed to hold several political positions at once, and some take advantage of this. For example, a person could be a member of the Tweede Kamer (the lower house of parliament) and also serve as a councillor in their hometown, or be an alderman (wethouder) while sitting on the provincial council (Provinciale Staten). They get paid for each job.
Some parties already ban this practice in their own rules. Now, D66, the largest governing party, and Pro (the former GroenLinks-PvdA), the largest opposition party, have jointly drawn up a plan to change the law so that no politician can have a “double mandate” (dubbelfunctie) anymore.
Conflicts of interest and time
The parties give two main reasons. First, there is a risk of conflicts of interest, or at least the appearance of one. “I was a provincial council member, and then you deal with, for example, a regional spatial plan,” said D66 MP Renilde Huizenga. “It would be strange if you were then also an alderman in that same province. You would be deciding about the same area at different levels.” Her Pro colleague Mo Mohandis mentioned that an alderman who is also a provincial council member might be tempted to favour their own municipality when a new housing district is being decided. “That risk exists. And you must always avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
The second reason is time. Both parties say political jobs are too demanding to combine. “The work of an MP really takes more than forty hours a week,” Huizenga said. Mohandis, who used to be a councillor in Gouda, a job he says took about thirty hours a week, put it more directly: “It is deceiving the voter to pretend you can do both at the same time.”
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Who it affects, and the pushback
According to NOS, it is mostly politicians from the PVV and Forum voor Democratie (FvD) who hold multiple roles, with several MPs also serving on provincial or municipal councils. Not surprisingly, these parties are pushing back. FvD MP Milan Schenk, who is also a councillor in Teylingen, said his party will not support the proposal, arguing “it is up to the voter to judge that.” He said he felt “almost insulted” by the plan, since it suggests he is not doing his job well, even though he claims to work 100 hours a week to handle both roles.
What happens next
The idea has a notable supporter in government. CDA minister Heerma, who oversees the functioning of the democratic state, responded positively. He said he sees the value of “clean relationships in our democratic governance” and a balanced distribution of power across different levels of government, so he thinks it is good to “critically examine the phenomenon of double mandates once again.” A coalition between D66 and Pro still has to be worked out and formally submitted. But given the size of the two parties and the minister’s sympathy for the plan, it stands a real chance of winning majority support in parliament.