Editing Reiderland (section)

==Politics==

Reiderland was one of the few municipalities in the Netherlands that still had [[Communism|communist]] councillors after the dissolution of the [[Communist Party of the Netherlands]] in 1989. (As of 2006, it was one of only four Dutch municipalities to have any, the other three being [[Heiloo]], [[Scheemda]] and [[Lemsterland]].) The [[New Communist Party of the Netherlands]] was in fact the largest party in Reiderland from 1990 to 1998 and again from 2002 to 2006. [[Finsterwolde]] and [[Beerta]], which was the only town in the Netherlands that ever had a communist mayor, had long been communist strongholds.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keesman |first=Susanne |date=2013 |title=The Communist Menace in Finsterwolde: Conspiring against Local Authorities? A Case Study on the Dutch Battle against Communism, 1945-1951 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23644498 |journal=Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung |volume=38 |issue=1 (143) |pages=211–231 |issn=0172-6404}}</ref>

In the 1998 municipal election, the [[New Communist Party of the Netherlands]] received 35.7% of the votes, behind the [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]]'s 40.3%, but in 2002 it received 34.1%, ahead of the Labour Party's 24.7%. It won five of the thirteen seats on the local council and formed the Court of Mayor and the Aldermen in alliance with local party Gemeentebelangen, although the two parties were traditionally foes. In the [[Dutch municipal election, 2006|2006 election]], however, the NCPN lost 3 of its 5 seats, getting only 18.3% of the vote, behind the Labour Party's 38.1%, Gemeentebelangen's 20.4%, and the [[Socialist Party (Netherlands)|Socialist Party]]'s 19.0%, and consequently lost its positions on the Court of Mayor and Aldermen. For the remaining years of the municipality's existence, the Labour Party's had 5 seats on the local council, the Socialist Party 3 seats, local party Gemeentebelangen 3 seats as well, and the NCPN 2 seats.{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

Reiderland also drew some attention in the [[Dutch general election, 2002|2002 general election]], when the [[Pim Fortuyn List]] received 22.9% of the vote in the municipality, the party's best result in the province of [[Groningen (province)|Groningen]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}