Under the name Strong Local (Dutch: Sterk Lokaal), the party first participated in the elections for the Provincial Council of Drenthe in 2015 with Aimée van der Ham as lead candidate and won one seat.[1] This seat was retained at the 2019 Dutch provincial elections. After the elections, the Strong Local and 50PLUS factions decided to merge into Strong Local Drenthe, which would give the party two seats,[2] but the 50PLUS faction leader still decided to continue independently, starting the new party OpDrenthe.[3] Strong Local did change its name to Strong Local Drenthe. The merger plans led to some unrest within the party: Assenalderman Janna Booij decided to cancel her membership of Strong Local, and the group leader of Strong Local left the Provincial Council.[4][5]