Members of far right Forum voor Democratie and its various splinter parties have by far the worse attendance record as members of the 12 provincial councils, broadcaster NOS said on Thursday.

FvD was the big winner at the 2019 provincial elections, taking a total of 86 council seats, or 15% of the total. But FvD current and former councillors are responsible over one-third of the no-shows at meetings, NOS said.

Since then the party has virtually collapsed and just 23 provincial councillors still claim membership. Others have formed new groups, such as JA21 and Groep Otten, and a handful have quit altogether.

FvD members also take up all but one of the places in the top 10 list of councillors who are most often absent. In tenth place is Gideon van Meijeren, who is also an MP and sits on The Hague city council for the party. He has missed 13 out of 33 provincial council meetings.

A spokesman for FvD told NOS in a reaction that its members are not ‘professional politicians’ and ‘give broader meaning to being a councillor than just attending meetings’.

Dutch nationals go to the polls to vote for new provincial councils on March 15.