Dutch Municipal Parties Promise Digital Innovation But Fail to Fund It
Amsterdam, Thursday, 19 March 2026.
Only one in eight Dutch political parties actually budget for digitalization despite 79% mentioning it in election programs, revealing a significant gap between digital promises and financial commitment in local politics.
The Research Behind the Digital Promises
Highberg, a Dutch consultancy firm, conducted a comprehensive analysis of 170 election programs across 12 municipalities including major cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, as well as smaller municipalities such as Kapelle, Groningen, and Dronten [1][2]. The study, released as municipal election results came in following the March 18, 2026 elections, revealed that 79.4 percent of political parties address digitalization in their election programs [1][2]. However, the research exposed a stark contrast between political rhetoric and financial reality: only one in eight parties actually allocate budget for digitalization initiatives, and a mere 4 percent budget for artificial intelligence projects [1][2].
Big Cities Lead Digital Discourse While Smaller Towns Lag
The four largest municipalities - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht - demonstrate significantly higher engagement with digital transformation, with 86 percent of parties focusing on digitalization and almost 60 percent mentioning AI in their programs [2]. However, even in these major urban centers, only one in five parties budget for their digital plans [2]. In smaller municipalities like Dronten, Kapelle, and Westerveld, 76 percent of parties address digitalization, but their focus remains on basic digital services and DigiD assistance [1][2]. AI appears in only 20 percent of programs in these smaller communities, with minimal budget allocation and virtually no dedicated chapters for digitalization or AI [1][2]. The city of Enschede stands out as an outlier, with only 31 percent of parties mentioning digitalization and just one out of sixteen parties addressing AI [2].
Political Party Differences and Innovation Examples
The research reveals distinct patterns among political parties regarding digital priorities. Green and social-liberal parties score highest in attention to digitalization and AI, while Forum voor Democratie also demonstrates strong focus on technology, privacy, and freedom [1][2]. Notably, the PVV does not mention digitalization themes at all [1][2]. Specific examples of digital innovation emerge from various cities: GroenLinks Amsterdam focuses on preventing data collection and public digital infrastructure, while in Dronten, the emphasis lies on digital resilience for seniors [2]. Groningen scores particularly high due to plans for an AI-factory in the former Niemeyerfabriek, while Rotterdam’s VVD wants to build an AI-Gigafabriek near the port [2]. The Kapelse ChristenUnie raises questions about whether the municipality can be digitally accessible to people with disabilities [2].
Concrete Implementation and Expert Warnings
Beyond political promises, some municipalities are already implementing innovative digital solutions. RTV Utrecht launched KiesKennis on March 18, 2024, an AI chatbot that helps residents of ten Utrecht municipalities access election information [3]. The system uses a Large Language Model to generate answers based on election program text fragments, designed to prevent ‘hallucination’ by using only concrete information from its knowledge base [3]. The chatbot adheres to European privacy laws and does not create personal user profiles or exploit data commercially [3]. Meanwhile, Erik de Ruiter, a consultant at Highberg, warns about the gap between ambition and action: ‘The remarkable finding of our research is that the core question is not whether parties find digitalization important. Most do. The real question is whether that attention will remain after the elections. Without budgets and concrete measures, digitalization threatens to remain the theme that everyone mentions and almost no one prioritizes. Out of 170 programs, it appears that the wallet often stays closed’ [1][2]. The study shows digitalization proposals score 2.1 out of 5 in concreteness, while AI scores only 1.15, where 1 represents vague intentions and 3 indicates concrete measures [2].