Lobbyists worked hard in the run-up to the Netherlands’ city council elections on Wednesday, according to a study by NOS and the Open State Foundation. The researchers found that passages from lobby texts were copied more or less word-for-word in well over 100 election programs from parties participating in Wednesday’s elections. Several party programs contained over 20 passages copied straight from lobby texts.

Open State Foundation based this study on a sample survey. It approached the registry department of 59 municipalities with a request to send all lobby-related documents. 37 municipalities complied, sending approximately 2,300 documents. The researchers then checked the texts from the lobby documents against over 500 downloaded election manifestos and found countless matches.

Lobbying – people from, typically, the business community, trying to influence political decision-making with arguments and information – is allowed in the Netherlands, but the rules around it are a bit unclear. The new government wants to introduce a lobby register for national politics, but at the municipal level, there is no insight into the influence exerted.

The researchers found that numerous organizations sent letters, emails, and brochures to local factions, requesting that their positions be included in the election manifestos. These include NS, the Royal Metal Union, sports organizations, interest groups for the disabled, elderly, young people in youth care, trade associations, grid operator Stedin, and the cultural sector, among others.

And with great success. Many dozens, possibly hundreds, of parties included submitted texts in their election manifestos, sometimes word for word. This applies to local parties, as well as local factions of national parties.

The SGP in Waalwijk copied several recommendations from the SME organization INretail. BIJ1 in Amsterdam included a piece of text from the Working Group Child in the Asylum Seeker Center verbatim. The CDA in Deventer copied a graph about SMEs from the Royal Metal Union. Onafhankelijk Papendrecht copied a paragraph from Stedin regarding heat networks, among many others.

According to Open State Foundation, which advocates for a transparent government, lobbying in itself is not a problem. But the fact that it remains hidden to the voter is. “It is fine that political parties are open to input from society, as long as they provide insight into it and do not blindly copy texts from lobbyists. The voter must know which interests have been taken into account and in what way,” director Serv Wiemers said.

Wiemers has two recommendations. “First: political parties that incorporate input from external organizations into their election manifestos should mention this, with a source citation for the relevant passage,” he told NOS. “Second: municipalities should establish a lobby register so that citizens, journalists, and council members can see which organizations are seeking contact with local politicians.”