Do European countries have an urban/rural politics divide like the U.S. does? (country, places)

[BigCityDreamer]

In the U.S., the larger cities tend vote more liberal and the rural areas tend to vote more conservative.

So, does this pattern hold true in European countries as well?

[irish_bob]

yes , though in my own country its a lot less pronounced , almost every party is terminally centrist , id kill for a little idealogy

in the uk , farmers for example vote conservative , just like in the usa , the most conservative party in ireland also has a large farmer vote

[Judge_Smails]

Yes. Finnish cities are hives of communists and Europervs. Our countryside is infested with farm subsidy dependents.

[LindavG]

Not in the Netherlands. There are some extremely conservative towns scattered throughout the country but there is no real divide between the urban and rural areas in terms of political ideology. In fact, I'd say they're more similar to each other because they both tend to be a bit more left-wing (social-democratic) than the rest of the country. In the past, the countryside used to be the stronghold of the Christian-democrats but those days seem to be gone. This map of the recent national elections shows what I mean:



Red = social-democratic
Blue = liberal

The most rural parts of the Netherlands (the Northern provinces and parts of the East) as well as the most urban parts of the Netherlands (major cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Arnhem, Eindhoven, etc.) are dominated by the social-democrats. Keep in mind that we don't have a "winner takes all" system and the results between the s-d and liberals were very close in most places, which is why the liberals ended up winning 41/150 seats and the s-d 38/150 seats in Parliament.

[paull805]

Northern UK cities, especially industrial cities, are historically Labour strongholds.