Reiderland
Former Municipality
Flag of Reiderland
Flag
Coat of arms of Reiderland
Coat of arms
Location of Reiderland
Coordinates: 53°10′N 7°05′E / 53.167°N 7.083°E / 53.167; 7.083
CountryNetherlands
ProvinceGroningen
Area
(2006)
 • Total156.72 km2 (60.51 sq mi)
 • Land98.55 km2 (38.05 sq mi)
 • Water58.16 km2 (22.46 sq mi)
Population
 (1 January, 2007)
 • Total7,004
 • Density71/km2 (180/sq mi)
 Source: CBS, Statline.
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)

Reiderland (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌrɛidərˈlɑnt] ⓘ) is a former municipality in the province Groningen in the northeastern Netherlands, which was founded in 1990 during a large municipal reorganisation.[1] The former municipalities Finsterwolde and Bad Nieuweschans were abolished and added to Beerta.[2] In 1992, the new municipality was given its current name. In 2010 it joined in the municipality Oldambt.[3]

Politics

Reiderland was one of the few municipalities in the Netherlands that still had 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.[4]

In the 1998 municipal election, the New Communist Party of the Netherlands received 35.7% of the votes, behind the 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 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'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.

Reiderland also drew some attention in the 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.

Population centres

Towns and villages in the municipality include:

The old Reiderland

Reiderland is also the name of an area of land in the Netherlands and Germany that was drowned with 33 villages and a town in 1277 when the Dollart inlet formed. Much of the area has been re-empoldered since. See List of settlements lost to floods in the Netherlands#Drowned villages in Groningen province.

References

  1. ↑ Recovery of Local and Regional Authorities in Financial Difficulties: Draft Report. Council of Europe. 2002-01-01. p. 29. ISBN 9789287149589.
  2. ↑ "glhermine". World Elections. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
  3. ↑ Witt, Enno de (2013-03-05). De grens: langs de randen van Nederland (in Dutch). Singel Uitgeverijen. p. 315. ISBN 9789025370336.
  4. ↑ Keesman, Susanne (2013). "The Communist Menace in Finsterwolde: Conspiring against Local Authorities? A Case Study on the Dutch Battle against Communism, 1945-1951". Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung. 38 (1 (143)): 211–231. ISSN 0172-6404.

53°10′N 7°05′E / 53.167°N 7.083°E / 53.167; 7.083

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