Editing Urk (section)

== Politics ==

===Local===

The municipal council currently (2022) contains five political parties:
*[[Reformed Political Party|SGP]]: 6 seats
*[[ChristenUnie|Christian Union]]: 3 seats
*[[Christian Democratic Appeal|CDA]]: 3 seats
*Hart voor Urk: 3 seats
*Gemeentebelangen: 2 seats 
*[[Party for Freedom|PVV]]: 1 seat
*Krachtig Urk: 1 seat
''Gemeentebelangen'', ''Hart voor Urk'' and ''Krachtig Urk'' are local parties. Hart voor Urk was founded by former SGP councillor Jan Koffeman with largely identical party policies to SGP's.

A majority coalition of ChristenUnie, SGP and Hart voor Urk are currently in power. The town council is led by (non-elected) mayor Cees van den Bos.

None of these parties can be described as either left-wing (socialist) or liberal. National parties, such as the [[VVD]] (conservative/liberal), [[Democrats 66|D66]] (liberal), [[GroenLinks]] (green party) and [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|PvdA]] (labour), are not represented in Urk's town council and support for these parties in national and regional elections remains minimal. However, due to slowly growing support for the VVD, an Urk affiliate of the conservative/liberal party was founded in early 2011 and entered the 2014 local elections. However, the VVD only drew 2.7% of the vote, insufficient for a seat.

===National===
Urk is one of the most politically conservative areas in the Netherlands. As part of the so-called Dutch "[[Bible Belt (Netherlands)|Bible belt]]", a vast majority of election votes go to the three Christian parties in the Netherlands, [[Reformed Political Party|SGP]], [[ChristenUnie]] and [[Christian Democratic Appeal|CDA]]. Urk is also known for its high turnout at each election, which is usually considerably higher than the national average (although general turnout percentages have dropped approx. 10% since 2002).

Voting patterns used to be relatively stable, with approximately 85-90% of the votes spread out evenly over SGP, [[ChristenUnie]] and CDA (each between 25-35%). CDA in Urk usually got more votes in national elections than in local elections, while ChristenUnie's support is sometimes twice locally compared to what it receives from Urk voters in national elections (this is sometimes attributed to the apparent left-wing leanings of the ChristenUnie nationally, while ChristenUnie in Urk tends to be more conservative). SGP's support locally is not much different from its support in national elections.

However, in recent years a few changes in voting patterns occurred, such as a growing support for national protest parties such as the [[Pim Fortuyn List|LPF]] or [[Geert Wilders]]' [[Party for Freedom|PVV]] Freedom Party. Also, voting patterns these days tend to show bigger swings, as shown in 2010's and 2012's national elections in which CDA lost 11% and 13% respectively, and in 2011's regional elections, in which ChristenUnie lost 18%. In 2012, orthodox-Christian [[Reformed Political Party|SGP]] even registered an absolute majority with 51.2% of the vote. (In the European Elections of 2014, the combined ChristenUnie/SGP list even registered 78% of the vote).

Support for established left wing parties, such as the [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]] or the [[Socialist Party (Netherlands)|Socialist Party]], remains minimal.


{{election table|title=Summary of the [[Dutch general election, 2017|2017]] and [[Dutch general election, 2021|2021]] Dutch [[House of Representatives of the Netherlands|House of Representatives]] election results (Urk)<ref> {{cite web |url=https://verkiezingsuitslagen.nl/verkiezingen/detail/TK20210317/687145 |title=Tweede Kamer, 2021}}</ref><ref> {{cite web |url=https://verkiezingsuitslagen.nl/verkiezingen/detail/TK20170315/664368 |title=Tweede Kamer, 2017}}</ref>}}
|-
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left colspan="2" valign=top|Parties
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center valign=top|[[Political Ideology]]
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center valign=top| 2017 Votes %
!style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right valign=top| 2021 Vote %
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Reformed Political Party|3px}}
|align=left|[[Reformed Political Party]] <br> (Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP)
|align="left"|[[Conservatism]], [[Reformed Churches in the Netherlands|Reformed Christian]]
|align="right" |56.1%
|align="right" |54.4%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Party for Freedom|3px}}
|align=left|[[Party for Freedom]] <br> (Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV)
|align=left|[[Right-wing populism]]/[[Criticism of Islam|Anti-Islam]]
|align="right" |11.0%
|align="right" |13.8%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Forum for Democracy|3px}}
|align=left|[[Forum for Democracy]] <br> (Forum voor Democratie, FvD)
|align=left|[[Right-wing populism]]/[[Criticism of Islam|Anti-Islam]]
|align="right" |-
|align="right" |9.0%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Christian Union (Netherlands)|3px}}
|align=left|[[ChristianUnion]] <br> (ChristenUnie, CU)
|align=left|Social-Christianity /Orthodox Protestantism
|align="right" |11.6%
|align="right" |8.1%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Christian Democratic Appeal|3px}}
|align=left|[[Christian Democratic Appeal]] <br> (Christen-Democratisch Appèl, CDA)
|align=left|[[Christian Democracy]]
|align="right" |14.2%
|align="right" |7.8%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|People's Party for Freedom and Democracy|3px}}
|align=left|[[People's Party for Freedom and Democracy]] <br> (Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD)
|align=left|[[Conservative liberalism]]
|align="right" |1.8%
|align="right" |1.7%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Democrats 66|3px}}
|align=left|[[Democrats 66]] <br> (Democraten 66, D66)
|align=left|[[Social liberalism]], [[Radicalism (historical)|Radicalism]], [[Progressivism]]
|align="right" |0.5%
|align="right" |0.5%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Party for the Animals|3px}}
|align=left|[[Party for the Animals]] <br> (Partij voor de Dieren, PvdD)
|align=left|[[Animal rights]]/[[Animal welfare]]
|align="right" |0.2%
|align="right" |0.3%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Socialist Party (Netherlands)|3px}}
|align=left|[[Socialist Party (Netherlands)|Socialist Party]] <br> (Socialistische Partij, SP)
|align=left|[[Socialism]]
|align="right" |0.7%
|align="right" |0.2%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|GreenLeft|3px}}
|align=left|[[GreenLeft]] <br> (GroenLinks, GL)
|align=left|[[Green politics]]
|align="right" |0.2%
|align="right" |0.2%
|- align=right
| {{party color cell|Dutch Labour Party|3px}}
|align=left|[[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]] <br> (Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA)
|align=left|[[Social Democracy]]
|align="right" |0.2%
|align="right" |0.2%
|- align=right
|bgcolor="darkgray"|
|align=left|Other 
|align="left" |&ndash;
|align="right" |3.4%
|align="right" |3.8%
|-
|align=left colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|'''Total'''
|width="100" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100%
|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100%
|-
|align=left colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|''Turnout''
|width="100" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|
|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|81.57%
|width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|91.33%
|}