Amsterdam’s GroenLinks leader Rutger Groot Wassink is pinning his hopes on a coalition with the Liberal democratic party D66, Labour and the Socialists, the Parool said on Friday afternoon.

While GroenLinks was the big winner in last Wednesday’s vote, the other three parties all lost a considerable number of seats. Nevertheless, Groot Wassink told the paper he did not consider this to be a problem.

‘A vote for a party which lost is as valuable as one for a party that won,’ he said. The pro-animal PvdD, which like the Socialists has three seats on the city council, is not invited for the formation talks because of differences about tackling inequality, Groot Wassink said.

Amsterdam has been ruled by a coalition of the right-wing Liberal VVD, D66 and the SP for the past four years.

D66 leader Reinier van Dantzig, whose party’s support plummeted from 14 to eight, said that the three other parties are ‘all progressive parties and we have much in common.’

Labour leader Marjolein Moorman said her party is keen to become part of the city administration once again. In terms of party programmes, an alliance between the four ‘must be possible’ she said.