Category Archives: Dutch
Party for Human and Spirit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Partij voor Mens en Spirit)
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Party for Human and Spirit
Partij voor Mens en Spirit |
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|---|---|
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| President | Barend Lambrechtsen |
| Lijsttrekker | Tara-Joëlle Fonk |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Ideology | Spiritual left |
| Political position | Centre-left |
The Party for Human and Spirit (Dutch: Partij voor Mens en Spirit, MenS) is a Dutch political party, founded in March 2008. In December 2008, the party registered with the electoral council. MenS took part in the parliamentary elections in 2010 where they won 0.3% of the vote, not enough to enter the House of Representatives. The founder and president of the party is Lea Manders. She is an astrologer and has been a city councillor in Arnhem since 1998. MenS participated in the municipal elections of March 5, 2010 in the municipalities of Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Respectively, they won 0.3 and 0.5 percent and did not gain any seats.
In november 2014 MenS participated in a combined list with the Basic Income Party, the Netherlands (Dutch: Basis Inkomen Partij, BIP) in the municipality of Alkmaar and they won 1.0 percent and did not gain any seats. On March 18, 2015 MenS is participating in the elections for the provinces in two of them: Groningen and Gelderland.
The Party for Human and Spirit is based on what they call “modern spiritual foundations”. Their main agenda is reorganizing the monetary system in order to enable the country, the seventh highest GDP but with increasing poverty, to thrive.
In Germany there exists a similar political party, Die Violetten.
Libertarian Party (Netherlands)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Libertarische Partij)
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Libertarian Party
Libertarische Partij |
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|---|---|
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| Leader | Robert Valentine |
| Chairman | Robert Valentine |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Thinktank | Bernard de Mandeville Instituut |
| Ideology | Libertarianism |
| European affiliation | European Party for Individual Liberty |
| International affiliation | Interlibertarians |
| Senate |
0 / 75
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| House of Representatives |
0 / 150
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| States-Provincial |
0 / 566
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| European Parliament |
0 / 26
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| Website | |
| http://www.stemLP.nl/ | |
The Libertarian Party (Dutch: Libertarische Partij, LP) is a Dutch political party founded in 1993. She hopes to develop “a free world, a world in which no one is forced to sacrifice his or her life and property for the benefit of others”.[1]Its founder is Toine Manders, who works for the Haags Juristen College. On 9 May 2015, Jasper de Groot was elected as chairmain.[2]
The party took part in the Dutch General Election of 1994, receiving 2,754 votes and no seats. After this, the party spent nearly two decades in ‘hibernation’, organizing lectures and events to spread its message, but not partaking in national elections. The party once again became active in 2012, and participated in the Dutch general election of 2012, receiving only 4,205 votes.
Since then, the party has participated in 10 municipal elections in 2013 and 2014, has elected a new chairman, and is in the process of expanding and modernizing. Since 2012, membership has increased noticeably, though the party remains unrepresented in any representative or legislative body. In 2014, the Libertarian Party was the first political party in The Netherlands to accept Bitcoin. The party also participated in the Dutch Provincial Election and plans to participate in the next General Election.
The party platform is based on Libertarian principles such as personal and economic liberty, respect for private property and self-ownership.
Pirate Party of the Netherlands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Piratenpartij)
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Pirate Party
Piratenpartij |
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|---|---|
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| Leader | Ancilla van de Leest |
| Chairman | Henk Heslinga |
| Founded | 10 March 2010 |
| Ideology | Pirate politics, direct democracy, privacy, freedom of information, open government |
| Political position | Centre |
| International affiliation | Pirate Parties International |
| Website | |
| www.piratenpartij.nl | |
The Pirate Party (Dutch: Piratenpartij, PPNL) is a political party in the Netherlands, formed in 2006 but not officially registered until 10 March 2010.[1]The party is based on the model of the Swedish Pirate Party.
Positions[edit]
The party purposefully limits itself to a limited number of positions. It wants to curb Dutch copyright law (where it wants non-commercial use to be free), to remodel patent law, to protect and strengthen (digital) civil rights, a transparent government and a considerate handling of IT-projects by the government.[2][3]Its Declaration of Principles says that its purpose is “to change global legislation to facilitate the emerging information society, which is characterized by diversity and openness. We do this by requiring an increased level of respect for the citizens and their right to privacy, as well as reforms to copyright and patent law.” [4]
2010 general election[edit]
The party participated at the 2010 Dutch general elections.[5] The party gained no seats in the House of Representatives, becoming the third highest-ranking party not to gain any seats in the election—with over 10,000 votes (0.1% of the national vote).
Candidates[edit]
The following people were candidates for the Pirate Party in the 2010 general election:[6]
- Samir Allioui
- Eva Jobse
- Ruud Poutsma
- Dirk Poot
- Arend Lammertink
- Wesley Schwengle
- Bas Koopmans
- Rodger van Doorn
- Jorrit Tulp
- Danny Palic
- Stefan de Konink
- Arjen Halma
- Bas Grasmaijer
- Robbie Hontelé
International[edit]
The party is member of Pirate Parties International (PPI). International cooperation through the PPI is seen as crucial to realising the goals of the party.[7] The positions of the party are based on the Pirate Party Declaration of Principles.[8]
Samir Allioui, co-founder of PPNL and party leader during the 2010 elections, was Co-President of Pirate Parties International (PPI) from July 2009 until April 2010.[9]
Parliamentary Elections 2012[edit]
On July 12, 2012, the candidate list for the parliamentary elections was announced. The Party leader, Dirk Poot, who two years earlier was 4th place on the list is first on the list, with former leader, Samir Allioui, coming last on the list.[10] The party achieved 0.3%, over 30,000 votes, almost tripling their vote from the last election but failing to meet their target of entering parliament. They also became the largest party not to be represented in parliament.
Candidates[edit]
- Dirk Poot
- Danny Palic
- Rodger van Doorn
- Patriek Lesparre
- Catherina Betlehem
- David van Deijk
- Roberto Moretti
- Jan Hopmans
- Dylan Hallegraef
- Mark Jansen
- Samir Allioui
City Council elections 2014[edit]
During the City Council elections of 2014 the Pirate Party was active in four cities:
- Amsterdam: 1.7%
- Binnenmaas: 2.1%
- Groningen: 1.3%
- Zwolle: 1.4%
In none of them was it able to win a seat, but on March 21 it was announced that the party won a seat in the Amsterdam West District Committee.
GeenPeil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Available in | Dutch |
|---|---|
| Owner | News Media (NL), Burgercomité-EU |
| Slogan(s) | Red de democratie! (Save democracy!) |
| Website | www.geenpeil.nl |
| Registration | Netherlands |
| Launched | 2014 |
GeenPeil is a political initiative by GeenStijl, a Dutch weblog and political party known for its provocative content and its past hoaxes. The name refers to polling results.
First initiative 2014[edit]
GeenStijl organized its first GeenPeil initiative during the 2014 European Parliament elections which were held 22 thru 25 May 2014 within the European Union. Being among the first to vote on May 22, Dutch municipalities were not allowed to publish the results of the election before those of the other EU members were known.
Because the Dutch Electoral Act states that the chairman of every polling station has to read the electoral results out loud, if requested to do so, GeenStijl found 1,442 volunteers willing to register and call-in the results of nearly every polling station within the country. Based on those results, GeenStijl was able to construct and publish its own exit poll in the early morning of 23 May 2014, several days before the last election results became public.[1]
Second initiative 2015[edit]
GeenPeil gained further publicity in 2015 by calling for an advisory referendum on the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. The call for this referendum was supported by several Dutch political parties, including the PVV, Groep Bontes/Van Klaveren, SP, 50PLUS and PvdD.[2] Opposing voices to the referendum stated that the subject was unsuitable for a ‘substantive public discussion’; former minister of Economic Affairs Laurens Jan Brinkhorst said that in reality the referendum is not about the association agreement, but really is a “defining tool for either opposing or siding with Putin‘.[3]
Geenpeil
On 29 October 2015, the Dutch Electoral Council announced all legal stipulations had been met and the referendum would be held on 6 April 2016.[4]
This latest GeenPeil campaign was headed by GeenStijl reporter Jan Roos, who later announced GeenPeil will not engage in any political campaigns aimed against or for the Ukraine agreement. Instead, priority will be given to the minimum participation quorum of 30%, as stipulated in the Dutch Advisory Referendum act. If the quorum is not met, the referendum will be ruled invalid.
Referendum budget[edit]
The Dutch Ministry of Internal Affairs decided on establishing a budget of 20 million euros to finance the GeenPeil referendum, less than half the amount reserved for the 2012 national Parliamentary elections. According to the Association of Netherlands Municipalities VNG, this budget would have a negative effect on the democratic electoral process.[5]
In an effort to increase the financial means for municipalities as well as safeguard the democratic process, on 3 December 2015 a motion was put forward by D66-politician Fatma Koşer Kaya and SP-politician Ronald van Raak to increase the budget to 42 million euros. The motion was opposed by majority – consisting of VVD, PvdA, CDA, SGP and CU – and therefor not adopted.[6]
The GeenPeil campaign team considered the failed motion to be ‘the last straw’ in a series of incidents and decided to invoke the aid of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the principal institution of the OSCE that same day.[7] A letter from GeenPeil, sent to the ODIHR office in Warsaw, formally requested an ‘ODIHR Election Observation Mission’ to be sent to the Netherlands as soon as possible, not only to supervise the referendum itself on 6 April 2016, but also to analyze the perceived ‘political obstruction’ which GeenPeil felt was intended to cause the referendum to fail.[8]
Effects of the reduced budget[edit]
The GeenPeil campaign set out to investigate whether the reduced budget would influence the number of polling stations each municipality would open for the GeenPeil referendum. On 13 December 2015, over 40 municipalities (out of a total of 396) indicated they were planning to tentatively or definitely reduce the number of polling stations. Although in some cases the reduction only concerns one polling station, in other cases over 50% of the standard polling stations for elections are to remain closed for this referendum. Multiple reasons – including a lower budget – were given for the decisions.[9] On 15 December 2015, the municipality Oldenzaal based the decision to reduce the standard 17 polling stations with 70% to just 5 stations on ‘budgetary reasons’.[10]
Shortly after these results were made public, several municipalities – pressured by either local council members or the public – reverted to the standard number of polling stations. By mid December, only 5 out of the total of 396 municipalities had not answered the questions regarding the number of polling stations, posted by GeenPeil in early November. Despite continued efforts, these municipalities – Alphen-Chaam, Kerkrade, Sint Anthonis and Sittard-Geleen – refused to communicate their intentions.
Governmental support[edit]
On 25 November 2015, a majority of the House of Representatives stated they would respect the results of the advisory GeenPeil referendum, even though most parties preferred the Ukraine Association Agreement to be ratified.[11] Less than a month later, however, on 15 December 2015, a motion proposed by House of Representatives member Louis Bontes to respect the results of the GeenPeil referendum was voted down.[12]
Support for Brexit[edit]
GeenPeil supported the Brexit-campaign of UKIP.[13] Jan Roos was present with UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the so-called “Battle of the Thames”, a maritime confrontation on the Thames between Leave and Remain supporters prior to the Brexit-referendum.[14]
Political Party[edit]
GeenPeil later became a political party and intends to take part in the Dutch general elections on 15 March 2017. The lijsttrekker is Jan Dijkgraaf.
VoorNederland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Groep Bontes/Van Klaveren)
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VoorNederland
For the Netherlands Group Bontes/Van Klaveren |
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| Abbreviation | VNL |
| Leader | Jan Roos [1] |
| Chairman | Laurence Stassen |
| Secretary | Joram van Klaveren |
| Treasurer | Johan Driessen |
| Leader in the House of Representatives | Louis Bontes |
| Founder | Louis Bontes Joram van Klaveren Johan Driessen |
| Founded | 28 May 2014 |
| Split from | Party for Freedom |
| Headquarters | Het Plein 2 The Hague |
| Ideology | Classical liberalism[2] Liberal conservatism[3] Euroscepticism[2] |
| Political position | Right-wing[3] |
| European affiliation | Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe |
| International affiliation | None |
| Colours | Blue |
| Senate |
0 / 75
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| House of Representatives |
2 / 150
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| States-Provincial |
0 / 570
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| European Parliament |
0 / 26
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| Website | |
| vnl.nu | |
Group Bontes/Van Klaveren (Dutch: Groep Bontes/Van Klaveren) – For the Netherlands (Dutch: VoorNederland – VNL) is a parliamentary group in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands formed on 15 April 2014 by Louis Bontes and Joram van Klaveren, two Members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands had left the Party for Freedom (PVV).[4][5]On 28 May 2014 Louis Bontes, Joram van Klaveren and Johan Driessen announced the formation of a new political party.
History[edit]
On May 28, 2014, the group officially founded a new political party, VoorNederland (VNL) (in English For the Netherlands or Pro-Netherlands), a classical liberal and Liberal conservatism[2] and Eurosceptic political party.[3]
On 13 November 2014, the party announced that it would cooperate with the UK Independence Party in the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe.[6][7]
In December 2014 and January 2015, VNL was joined by former PVV leader in the European Parliament Laurence Stassen[8] and, leading up to the 2015 provincial elections, two provincial PVV representatives from Groningen and Gelderland.[9] On 27 January 2015 it was announced that the members of the party Article 50 had voted to merge it into VoorNederland.[10]
On 21 April 2015 it was announced that jurist and former lawyer Bram Moszkowicz would become the party leader and lijsttrekker of VoorNederland at the next Dutch general election, planned for 2017,[11] but after nine months he was rejected by the party.[12]
Programme[edit]
VNL is a proponent of small government and supports the introduction of a low flat tax rate. Furthermore, it supports investment in the police and defence, seeks to limit the powers of the European Union to a free trade area, and wants a stricter immigration policy.[2]
50PLUS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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50PLUS
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_Logo.svg){kind=logo} |
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| Abbreviation | 50+ |
| Leader | Henk Krol |
| Chairman | Jan Nagel |
| Leader in the Senate | Jan Nagel |
| Leader in the House of Representatives | Henk Krol |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Kneuterdijk 2 The Hague |
| Youth wing | None |
| Thinktank | Wetenschappelijk Bureau 50PLUS |
| Membership (2017) | 6,180[1] |
| Ideology | Pensioners’ interests[2] [3] |
| Political position | Centre |
| European affiliation | None |
| International affiliation | None |
| European Parliament group | None |
| Colours | Purple |
| Senate |
2 / 75
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| House of Representatives |
1 / 150
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| King’s Commissioners |
0 / 12
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| States-Provincial |
14 / 570
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| European Parliament |
0 / 26
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| Website | |
| www.50pluspartij.nl | |
The 50PLUS (Dutch: 50Plus, 50+) is a pensioners’ interests political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 2009 by Maurice Koopman, Alexander Münninghoff, and Jan Nagel, a politician formerly connected to the Labour Party and Livable Netherlands. Henk Krol is the Leader since 2016.
The party first participated in elections during the Dutch provincial elections of 2011. During these elections the party obtained 9 seats in the States-Provincial. In the Dutch Senate election of 2011 the members of the States-Provincial elected the members of the new Senate. During these elections, the party won one seat in the Senate. During the Dutch general election of 2012 the party obtained 2 seats.
Electoral results[edit]
Parliament[edit]
| Election year | House of Representatives | Government | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | |||
| 2012 | 177,631 | 1.9 (#11) |
2 / 150
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 2 |
in opposition | One seat left after 3 June 2014 |
| 2017 | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| Election year | Senate | Government | Notes | |||
| # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | |||
| 2011 | 2,193 | 1.3 |
1 / 75
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1 |
in opposition | |
European Parliament[edit]
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 174.466 | 3,7 |
0 / 25
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 0 |
States-Provincial[edit]
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | (#10) |
9 / 566
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|||
| 2015 | (#10) |
14 / 570
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5 |
Organization[edit]
Leadership[edit]
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Representation[edit]
House of Representatives[edit]
Current members of the House of Representatives since the Dutch general election of 2012:
Senate[edit]
Current members of the Senate since the Dutch Senate election of 2015:
Party for the Animals
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Partij voor de Dieren)
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Party for the Animals
Partij voor de Dieren |
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| Abbreviation | PvdD |
| Leader | Marianne Thieme |
| Chairman | Luuk Folkerts |
| Leader in the Senate | Niko Koffeman |
| Leader in the House of Representatives | Marianne Thieme |
| Founded | October 2002 |
| Youth wing | PINK! |
| Thinktank | Nicolaas G. Pierson foundation |
| Membership (2017) | 12,866[1] |
| Ideology | Animal liberation Environmentalism[2] Soft Euroscepticism[citation needed] |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| International affiliation | Euro Animal 7 |
| European Parliament group | European United Left–Nordic Green Left |
| Colours | Green |
| Seats in the Senate |
2 / 75
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| Seats in the House of Representatives |
2 / 150
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| States-Provincial |
18 / 570
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| Seats in the European Parliament |
1 / 26
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| Website | |
| www.partijvoordedieren.nl www.partyfortheanimals.nl www.pinkpolitiek.nl |
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The Party for the Animals (Dutch: Partij voor de Dieren; PvdD) is a political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare, though it claims not to be a single-issue party. The party does consider itself to be a testimonial party, which does not seek to gain political power, but only to testify to its beliefs and thereby influence other parties.[3]
Its chairwoman and political leader is Marianne Thieme.
At the moment the Party for the Animals holds 2 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 1 of the 75 seats in the Senate. In the House of Representatives Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand represent the PvdD since November 30, 2006, whereas Niko Koffeman represents it in the Senate since June 12, 2007. In the 2014 European Parliament elections, the party gained a representative in the European Parliament, Anja Hazekamp.
History[edit]
The Party for the Animals was founded in October 2002 by Marianne Thieme, among others.
In the Dutch general election of 2003 it gained 50,000 votes (0.5%), but not a seat in the House of Representatives.
In the 2004 European Parliament election the party gained 153,000 votes (3.2%), three times as much as in the 2002 Dutch general election. Still the number of votes was not enough to obtain a seat in the European Parliament.
During the 2006 parliamentary elections it gained 179,988 votes (1.8%), enough for two seats in Dutch parliament. In the run-up to these elections the party was supported by several Dutch celebrities, such as writers Maarten ‘t Hart and Jan Wolkers.
In its first municipal council elections the party in 2010 gained one seat in every of the five places, where it participated.
In its third parliamentary elections, on June 9, 2010, the PvdD retained its two seats in the House of Representatives with 122,317 votes (1.3%). In the 2012 general elections the party got 182,162 votes, an increase of 45%, but with just under 2% of the popular vote this did not secure a third seat in the House of Representatives.
Miscellaneous[edit]
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The “PvdD” is the first political party in the world to gain parliamentary seats with an agenda focused primarily on animal rights.
One of the results that the PvdD claims to have reached during its first four-year parliamentary period is the fact that the government has declared that reduction of national meat consumption further on is one of its priorities.[4]
The Party for Animals welcomed its 10,000th member in late 2009.
Electoral results[edit]
Parliament[edit]
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 47,754 | 0.5 (#10) |
0 / 150
|
0 |
in opposition |
| 2006 | 179,988 | 1.8 (#9) |
2 / 150
|
2 |
in opposition |
| 2010 | 122,317 | 1.3 (#10) |
2 / 150
|
0 |
in opposition |
| 2012 | 182,162 | 1.9 (#9) |
2 / 150
|
0 |
in opposition |
European Parliament[edit]
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 157,735 | 3.5 (#9) |
0 / 25
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|
| 2014 | 199,438 | 4.2 (#9) |
1 / 26
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1 |
Representation[edit]
Members of the House of Representatives[edit]
After the 2012 elections the party has two representatives in the House of Representatives:
Members of the Senate[edit]
After the 2015 Senate elections, the party has two representatives in the Senate:
Members of the European Parliament[edit]
After the 2014 European Parliament elections, the party has one representative in the European Parliament:
Reformed Political Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij)
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Reformed Political Party
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij |
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|---|---|
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| Abbreviation | SGP |
| Leader | Kees van der Staaij |
| Chairman | Adri van Heteren |
| Leader in the Senate | Peter Schalk |
| Leader in the House of Representatives | Kees van der Staaij |
| Leader in the European Parliament | Bas Belder |
| Founded | 24 April 1918 |
| Split from | Anti Revolutionary Party |
| Headquarters | Burgemeester van Reenensingel 101 Gouda |
| Youth wing | Reformed Political Party Youth |
| Thinktank | Guido de Brès-Foundation |
| Membership (2017) | 30,122[1] |
| Ideology | Christian right[2] Social conservatism[2] Dominionism[3][4][5] |
| Political position | Right-wing[6][7] |
| Religion | Calvinism, Evangelicalism[2] |
| European affiliation | European Christian Political Movement |
| European Parliament group | European Conservatives and Reformists |
| Colours | Blue and Orange |
| Seats in the Senate |
2 / 75
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| Seats in the House of Representatives |
3 / 150
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| States-Provincial |
14 / 570
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| Seats in the European Parliament |
1 / 26
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| Website | |
| www.sgp.nl (Offline on Sunday) |
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The Reformed Political Party (Dutch: Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP) is an orthodox Protestant Calvinist[8] political party in the Netherlands. The term Reformed is not a reference to political reform, but is a synonym for Calvinism. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands in its current form, and has for its entire existence been in opposition. The party has, owing to its orthodox political ideals and its refusal to cooperate in any cabinet, been called a testimonial party.
Party history[edit]
Foundation[edit]
The SGP was founded on 24 April 1918, by several conservative members of the Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP). They did not support the female suffrage, which the ARP had made possible. Furthermore, they were against the alliance the ARP had formed with the General League of Roman Catholic Caucuses. The party entered in the 1918 general elections, but was unable to win any seats. The leading figure in the party’s foundation was Yersekeminister Gerrit Hendrik Kersten.
1922–1945[edit]
In the 1922 election the party entered Parliament. In this period the SGP became most noted for proposing to abolish the Dutch representation at the Holy See during each annual parliamentary debate on the budget of the ministry of foreign affairs. Each year the Protestant Christian Historical Union (CHU) voted in favour. The CHU was in cabinet with the Catholic General League, but many of its members and supporters still had strong feelings against the Catholic Church. In 1925 the left-wing opposition composed of the Free-thinking Democratic League and Social Democratic Workers’ Party voted in favour of the motion. They were indifferent to the representation at the Holy See, but saw this as a possibility to divide the confessional cabinet. And indeed the cabinet fell over this issue, in what is known as the Nacht van Kersten (Night of Kersten).
In the subsequent elections, the party won one seat, and in the 1929 election the party won another. It remained stable in the 1933 elections but lost one seat in the 1937 elections in which ARP prime minister Hendrikus Colijn performed particularly well. During the Second World War, Kersten cooperated with the Nazi occupiers to allow his paper, the Banier, to be printed. He also condemned the resistance, saying the Nazi invasion was divine retribution for desecrating the Lord’s Day. After the war, he was branded a collaborator and permanently stripped of his seat in the House of Representatives.
1945–present[edit]
Kees van der Staaij, current member of parliament and party leader
Kersten was succeeded by Pieter Zandt, under whose leadership the SGP was very stable, continually getting 2% of votes. In 1956 the SGP profited from the enlargement of parliament, and it got a seat in the Senate, which the party lost in 1960, but regained in 1971. In 1961 Zandt died and was succeeded by engineer Cor van Dis sr. After ten years he stood down in favour of minister Hette Abma, who also stepped down after ten years, in favour of engineer Henk van Rossum. At the 1984 European Parliament election the SGP joined the two other orthodox Protestant parties Reformatory Political Federation (RPF) and the Reformed Political League (GPV) in order to gain one seat in the European Parliament, it was taken by SGP engineer Van der Waal. In 1986 Van Rossum was succeeded by Bas van der Vlies, who led the party till March 2010, when he was succeeded by Kees van der Staaij. In 1994 the party lost one seat in parliament, which it regained in 1998 but lost again in 2002. After the general election of 2003, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) held talks with the SGP — the first time in recent history that the SGP was seriously considered as a possible coalition partner. Ultimately, the Democrats 66 joined the Second Balkenende cabinet instead of the SGP, mostly because of the ideological differences between VVD and SGP.
On 7 September 2005 the district court of The Hague judged that the party could no longer receive subsidies from the government, because women were not allowed to hold positions in the party. This was found to be a violation of the 1981 UN Treaty on Women in which the Netherlands committed to fighting discrimination. It also was a violation of the first article of the Dutch constitution, the principle of non-discrimination. The Dutch Council of State overturned the decision nevertheless, maintaining that a party’s political philosophy takes precedence, and that women have the opportunity to join other political parties where they can obtain a leadership role.[9]
Female members of the Reformed Political Party Youth (SGPJ), which does allow female membership, said however that they did not feel discriminated or repressed. During a party congress on 24 June 2006, the SGP lifted the ban on female membership. Political positions inside and outside the party are open to women. On 19 March 2014, the first female SGP delegate was elected to the Vlissingen municipal council.[10]
Ideology and issues[edit]
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As a radical Protestant conservative party, the SGP draws much from its ideology from the reformed tradition, specifically the ecclesiastical doctrinal standards known as the Three Forms of Unity, including an unamended version of the Belgic Confession (Nederlandse Geloofsbelijdenis). The latter text is explicitly mentioned in the first principle of the party,[11] where it is stated that the SGP strives towards a government totally based on the Bible. This first principle also states that the uncut version of the Belgic Confession is meant, which adds the task of opposing anti-Christian powers to the description of the government’s roles and tasks.[12] The party is a strict defender of the separation between church and state,[13] rejecting “both the state church and church state”. Both church and state are believed to have distinct roles in society, while working towards the same goal, but despite this, some accuse the SGP of advocating for theocracy.[14] The SGP opposes freedom of religion, but advocates freedom of conscience instead, noting that “obedience to the law of God cannot be forced”.[15][page needed]
The SGP opposes feminism, and concludes, on Biblical grounds, that men and women are of equal value (gelijkwaardig) but not equal (gelijk).[16] Men and women, so the party claims, have different places in society. This belief led to restricting party membership to men until 2006, when this restriction became subject to controversy[17] and was eventually removed.[18][page needed] It has traditionally opposed universal suffrage, seeking to replace this with a form of “organic suffrage” (Dutch: huismanskiesrecht, “suffrage of the pater familias“) restricted to male heads of households.[19]
In controversial discussions in the Dutch House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer), the SGP often stresses the importance of the rule of law, parliamentary procedure and rules of order, regardless of ideological agreement. The party favours the re-introduction of the death penalty in the Netherlands. They base this on the Bible, specifically on Genesis 9:6, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man,” and Exodus 21:12, “He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.”
Electoral results[edit]
| Election year | House of Representatives | Government | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | |||
| 1977 | 177,010 | 2.1 (#5) |
3 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
| 1981 | 171,324 | 2.0 (#7) |
3 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 1982 | 156,636 | 1.9 (#6) |
3 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 1986 | 159,740 | 1.7 (#5) |
3 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 1989 | 166,082 | 1.9 (#6) |
3 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 1994 | 155,251 | 1.7 (#9) |
2 / 150
|
 1 |
in opposition | |
| 1998 | 153,583 | 1.8 (#8) |
3 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
| 2002 | 163,562 | 1.7 (#9) |
2 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
| 2003 | 150,305 | 1.6 (#9) |
2 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 2006 | 153,266 | 1.6 (#10) |
2 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 2010 | 163,581 | 1.7 (#9) |
2 / 150
|
|
in opposition | |
| 2012 | 196,780 | 2.1 (#9) |
3 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
This is a list of representations of Reformed Political Party in the Dutch parliament, as well as the provincial, municipal and European elections. The party’s lijsttrekker has been the same as the fractievoorzitter (parliamentary group leader) of that year in every election.
Leadership[edit]
- Shown by default in chronological order of leadership
| Year | Name | Period | Time in office | Deputy leader/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | Gerrit Kersten | 1922 – 1939 | 17 years | |
| 1945 | Pieter Zandt | 1945 – 1961 | 16 years | |
| 1961 | Cor van Dis sr | 1961 – 1971 | 10 years | |
| 1971 | Hette Abma | 1971 – 1981 | 10 years | |
| 1981 | Henk van Rossum | 1981 – 1986 | 5 years | |
| 1986 | Bas van der Vlies | 1986 – 2010 | 24 years | |
| 2010 | Kees van der Staaij | 2010 – present | 6 or 7 years |
House of Representatives[edit]
Since the 2012 elections the party has had three representatives in the House of Representatives:
Senate[edit]
Since the 2015 Senate elections, the party has had two representatives in the Senate:
European Parliament[edit]
Since the 1984 European Parliament election the party has one elected representative in the European Parliament. From 1984 to 1997 Leen van der Waal was the representative, from 1999 until now Bas Belder is the party’s representative. In the European elections, the SGP formed one parliamentary party with the ChristianUnion, called ChristenUnion-SGP. It was part of the Independence/Democracy (Ind/Dem) European parliamentary group. Following the results of the 2009 European Parliament elections, the Ind/Dem group was disbanded, and the SGP joined the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) European parliamentary group. After the 2014 European Parliament elections, the SGP left the EFD and joined the ChristianUnion in the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group:[20]
- Bas Belder, member
Municipal and provincial government[edit]
 |
This article needs to be updated. (June 2015) |
Provincial government[edit]
In provincial governments, the party participates in the Zeeland provincial executive.[21] There, the party is the strongest, with over 10% of the vote. It has 12 members of provincial legislature.
The table below shows the election results of the 2011 provincial election in each province. It shows the areas where the Reformed Political Party is strong, namely in the Dutch bible belt: a band from Zeeland, via parts of South Holland and Utrecht, Gelderland to Overijssel.
| Province | Votes (%) | Result (seats) |
|---|---|---|
| Drenthe | ? | 0 |
| Flevoland | ? | 1 |
| Friesland* | ? | 0 |
| Gelderland | ? | 2 |
| Groningen | ? | 0 |
| Limburg | ? | 0 |
| North Brabant* | ? | 0 |
| North Holland* | ? | 0 |
| Overijssel | ? | 2 |
| South Holland | ? | 2 |
| Utrecht | ? | 1 |
| Zeeland | ? | 4 |
* result of combined ChristianUnion/SGP lists. ** members of the SGP (estimate) in combined ChristianUnion/SGP parliamentary parties.
Municipal government[edit]
5 of the 414 mayors of the Netherlands are members of the SGP,[22] and the party participates in several local executives, usually in municipalities located within the Dutch Bible Belt. The party has 40 aldermen and 244 members of local legislature. In many municipalities where the SGP is weaker, it cooperates with the ChristenUnie, presenting common lists.
Electorate[edit]
Areas where the Political Reformed Party received a significant amount of votes in 2003, largely coextensive with the Dutch Bible Belt.
The SGP has a very stable electorate, varying between 2 and 3 seats. The party has been called “an almost perfect illustration of Duverger’s category of “fossilized” minor party.”[23] Most of its electorate is formed by so-called “bevindelijk gereformeerden”, Reformed Christians for whom personal religious experience is very important. This group is formed by several smaller churches such as the Christian Reformed Churches, Reformed Congregations, Restored Reformed Church, and Old-Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands, as well as the conservative wing of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the Reformed Association. However, not all members of these churches / church wings vote SGP.
The SGP’s support is concentrated geographically in the Dutch bible belt, a band of strongly Reformed municipalities ranging from Zeeland in the South via Goeree-Overflakkee and the Alblasserwaard in South Holland and the Veluwe in Gelderland to the Western part of Overijssel, around Staphorst. The SGP is also very strong on the former island Urk. The party scored absolute majorities in the several villages in Uddel, even 65.2% of the vote.
Organization[edit]
Organizational structure[edit]
The highest organ of the SGP is the congress, which is formed by delegates from the municipal branches. It convenes once every year. It appoints the party board and decides the order of the Senate, House of Representatives, European Parliament candidates list and has the last say over the party program. The SGP chairman is always a minister. Since 2001 this position is ceremonial, as the general chair leads the party’s organization.
The party has 245 municipal branches and has a provincial federation in each province, except for Limburg.
Linked organisations[edit]
The party publishes the Banner two-weekly since 1921. The scientific institute of the party is called the Guido de Brès-foundation, which publishes the magazine Zicht (Sight). The youth organisation of the SGP is called the Reformed Political Party Youth (SGPJ), which with its approximately 12,000 members is the largest political youth organization in the Netherlands.[citation needed]
The SGP participates in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, a democracy assistance organisation of seven Dutch political parties.
Pillarized organisations[edit]
The SGP still has close links with several other orthodox Protestant organizations, such as several reformed churches and the newspaper Reformatorisch Dagblad. Together they form a small but strong orthodox-reformed pillar.
Relationships to other parties[edit]
Until 1963 the SGP was relatively isolated in parliament. The strongly antipapal SGP refused to cooperate with Catholic People’s Party or the secularists People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Labour Party (PvdA). The larger Protestant Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP) had some sympathy for the party, but cooperated tightly with the KVP and the Protestant Christian Historical Union (CHU). In 1963 another orthodox Protestant party, the Reformed Political League (GPV) entered parliament, in 1981 they were joined by the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF). Together these three parties formed the “Small Christian parties”. They shared the same orthodox Protestant political ideals and had the same political strategy, as testimonial parties. They cooperated in municipalities, both in municipal executives, where the parties were strong, as well as in common municipal parties, where the parties were weak. In the 1984 European Parliamentary election the parties presented a common list and they won one seat in parliament. After 1993 the cooperation between the GPV and the RPF intensified, but the SGP’s position at the time on female suffrage prevented the SGP joining this closer cooperation. However, in 2000 the GPV and RPF merged to form the ChristianUnion (CU). Traditionally the SGP and the CU worked together closely as they were both based on Protestant Christian politics. Recently however, as the CU has moved more towards the centre-left,[citation needed] discernible differences of philosophy between the SGP and CU have caused the parties to not join together in elections. The most notable example was the 2011 senate election where the SGP and CU did not combine their votes.[24]
Prime Minister Mark Rutte‘s first government depended on the SGP’s support in the Senate to pass legislation where it fell one seat short of a majority in the 2011 provincial elections.[25] As a result, the party was able to achieve a number of its own political objectives: continuing child support for larger families,[26] and restricting business hours on Sundays.[27]
GroenLinks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Green Left Weekly.
|
GroenLinks
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Party Chairperson | Marjolein Meijer |
| Leader in the Senate | Tineke Strik |
| Leader in the House of Representatives | Jesse Klaver |
| Leader in the European Parliament | Bas Eickhout |
| Founded | 1 March 1989 |
| Merger of | Rainbow: PSP, CPN, PPR and EVP[1] |
| Headquarters | Partijbureau GroenLinks Oudegracht 312 Utrecht |
| Think tank | Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks |
| Youth wing | DWARS |
| Membership (2017) | 23,390[2] |
| Ideology | Green politics[3] Green liberalism[4] |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| European affiliation | European Green Party |
| International affiliation | Global Greens |
| European Parliament group | The Greens–European Free Alliance |
| Colours | Green |
| Seats in the House of Representatives |
4 / 150
|
| Seats in the Senate |
4 / 75
|
| States-Provincial |
30 / 570
|
| Seats in the European Parliament |
2 / 26
|
| Website | |
| http://groenlinks.nl/ | |
GroenLinks (Dutch pronunciation: [ɣrunˈlɪŋks]) is a green political party operating in the Netherlands.
GroenLinks was formed on 1 March 1989 as a merger of four left-wing political parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People’s Party. After disappointing results in the 1989 and 1994 general elections, the party fared particularly well between 1994 and 2002. The party’s leader Paul Rosenmöller was seen as the unofficial leader of the opposition against the Kok cabinet-led Purple governments by the media, fellow politicians and academics, even though it was only the second largest party in the opposition.
GroenLinks describes itself as “green” “social“, and “tolerant“.[5]
Currently the party is represented by four seats in the House of Representatives, five in the Senate and two in the European Parliament. The last party leader, and chair of the parliamentary party in the House of Representatives, was Jolande Sap. The party is in opposition against the governing Rutte cabinet. The party has over 100 local councillors and it participates in the government of sixteen of the twenty largest municipalities in the Netherlands.[citation needed] The party’s voters are concentrated in larger cities, especially those with a university.
The party has 21,901 members which are organised in over 250 municipal branches. The party congress is open to all members. It is a member of the Global Greens and the European Green Party. The Party increased its number of seats from 7 to 10 in the 2010 Dutch general election, to be reduced to 4 seats in the 2012 election.
History[edit]
Before 1989: predecessors[edit]
GreenLeft was founded in 1989 as merger of four parties that were to the left of the Labour Party (PvdA), a social-democratic party which is traditionally the largest centre-left party in the Netherlands. The founding parties were the (destalinised) Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), which originated in the peace movement, the green-influenced Political Party of Radicals (PPR), originally a progressive Christian party, and the progressive Christian Evangelical People’s Party.[6] These four parties were frequently classified as “small left”; to indicate their marginal existence. In the 1972 general election these parties won sixteen seats (out of 150), in the 1977 general election they won only six. From that moment on, members and voters began to argue for close cooperation.[7]
From the 1980s onwards the four parties started to cooperate in municipal and provincial elections. As fewer seats are available in these representations a higher percentage of votes is required to gain a seat. In 1984 European election the PPR, CPN and PSP formed the Green Progressive Accord that entered as one into the European elections. They gained one seat, which rotated between the PSP and PPR. Party-members of the four parties also encountered each other in grassroots extraparliamentary protest against nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. More than 80% of the members of the PSP, CPN and PPR attended at least one of the two mass protests against the placement nuclear weapons of 1981 and 1983[8]
The Evangelical People’s Party was a relatively new party, founded in 1981, as a splinter group from the Christian Democratic Appeal, the largest party of the Dutch centre-right. During its period in parliament 1982-1986 it had trouble positioning itself between the small left parties (PSP, PPR and CPN), the PvdA and the CDA.[8]
| Part of a series on |
| Green politics |
|---|
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The increasingly close cooperation between PPR, PSP, CPN and EVP, and the ideological change that accompanied it was not without internal dissent within the parties. The ideological change that CPN made from official communism to ‘reformism‘ led to a split in the CPN; and the subsequent founding of the League of Communists in the Netherlands in 1982. In 1983, a group of “deep” Greens split from the PPR, to found The Greens. The CPN and the PPR wanted to form an electoral alliance with the PSP for the 1986 elections. This led to a crisis within the PSP, in which chair of the parliamentary party (Fractievoorzitter) Fred van der Spek, who opposed cooperation, was replaced by Andrée van Es, who favoured cooperation. Van der Spek left the PSP to found his own Party for Socialism and Disarmament. The 1986 PSP congress, however, rejected the electoral alliance.
In the 1986 general election, all four parties lost seats. The CPN and the EVP disappeared from parliament. The PPR was left with two and the PSP with one seat. While the parties were preparing to enter in the 1990 elections separately, the pressure to cooperate however also increased. In 1989 the PPR, CPN and PSP entered the 1989 European Parliament election with a single list, called the Rainbow. Joost Lagendijk and Leo Platvoet, both PSP party board members, initiated an internal referendum in which the members of the PSP declared to support leftwing cooperation (70% in favour; 64% of all members voting). Their initiative for left-wing cooperation was supported by an open letter from influential members of trade unions (such as Paul Rosenmöller and Karin Adelmund), of environmental movements (e.g., Jacqueline Cramer) and from arts (such as Rudi van Dantzig). In the letter they called for the formation of a single progressive party to the left of the Labour Party. Lagendijk and Platvoet had been taking part in informal meetings between prominent PSP, PPR and CPN-members, who favoured cooperation. Other participants were PPR chairman Bram van Ojik and former CPN leader Ina Brouwer. These talks were called “F.C. Sittardia” or Cliché bv.[8]
In the spring of 1989 the PSP party board initiated formal talks between the CPN, the PSP and the PPR about a common list for the upcoming general elections. It soon became clear that the CPN wanted to maintain an independent communist identity and not merge into a new left-wing formation. This was reason for the PPR leaving the talks. Negotiations about cooperation were reopened after the fall of the second Lubbers cabinet and the announcement that elections would be held in the autumn of that year. This time the EVP was included in the discussion. The PPR was represented for a short while by an informal delegation led by former chair Wim de Boer, because the party board did not want to be seen re-entering the negotiations it had left only a short while earlier. In the summer of 1989 the party congresses of all four parties accepted to enter the elections with a shared programme and list of candidates. Additionally the association GreenLeft (Dutch: Vereniging GroenLinks; VGL) was set up to allow sympathisers, not member of any of the four parties to join. Meanwhile, the European elections of 1989 were held, in which same group of parties had entered as a single list under the name “Rainbow“. In practice the merger of the parties had now happened and the party GreenLeft was officially founded on 24 November 1990.[7][8]
1989-1994: completion of the merge and first term in parliament[edit]
1989 election poster showing the old logo in which the pink lines and the blue spaces forming allude to a peace sign.
In the 1989 elections the PPR, PSP, CPN and EVP entered in the elections with one single list called Groen Links. In the Netherlands, parties usually participate in the elections with one list for the whole country. The candidates on top of the list get the priority for the distribution of seats won. The GreenLeft list of candidates was organised in such a way that all the parties were represented and new figures could enter. The PPR, which had been the largest party in 1986 got the top candidate (the lijsttrekker, Ria Beckers) and the number five; the PSP got the numbers two and six, the CPN the number three and the EVP number eleven. The first independent candidate was Paul Rosenmöller, trade unionist from Rotterdam, on the fourth place. In the elections the party doubled its seats in comparison to 1986 (from three to six) but the expectations had been much higher.[8] In the 1990 municipal elections the party fared much better however, strengthening the resolve to cooperate.[7]
In the period 1989-1991 the merger developed further. A board was organised for the party-in-foundation and also a ‘GreenLeft Council’, which was supposed to control the board and the parliamentary party and stimulate the process of merger. In this council all five groups (CPN, PPR, PSP, EVP and the Vereniging Groen Links) had seats on ratio of the number of their members. Originally, the three youth organisations, the CPN-linked General Dutch Youth League, the PSP-linked Pacifist Socialist Young Working Groups and the PPR-linked Political Party of Radical Youth refused to merge, but under pressure of the government, who controlled their subsidies they did merge to form DWARS.[9] In 1990 some opposition formed against the moderate, green course of GreenLeft. Several former PSP members united in the “Left Forum” in 1992 they would leave the party to join former PSP leader Van der Spek to found the PSP’92. Similarly former members of the CPN joined the League of Communists in the Netherlands to found the New Communist Party in the same year. In 1991 the congresses of the four founding parties (PSP, PPR, CPN and EVP) decided to officially abolish their parties.[8]
GreenLeft had considerable problems with formulating its own ideology. In 1990 the attempt to write the first manifesto of principles failed because of the difference between socialists and communists on the one side and the more liberal former PPR members on the other side.[9] The second manifesto of principles, which however was not allowed to be called that way, was adopted after a lengthy debate and many amendments in 1991.[9]
Although the party was internally divided, the GreenLeft parliamentary party was the only party in the Dutch parliament which opposed the Gulf War.[9] A debate within the party about the role military intervention led to a more nuanced standpoint than the pacifism of some of its predecessors: GreenLeft would support peace-keeping missions as long as they were mandated by the United Nations.[9]
In the fall of 1990 MEP Verbeek announced that he would not, as he had promised, leave the European Parliament after two and a half years to make room for a new candidate.[9] He would continue as an independent and remain in parliament until 1994. In the 1994 European elections, he would run unsuccessfully as top candidate of The Greens.[10]
In 1992 party leader Ria Beckers left the House of Representatives because she wanted more private time. Peter Lankhorst replaced her as chair ad interim, but he announced that he would not take part in the internal elections.[11]
1994-2002: opposition during the purple cabinets[edit]
1994 election posters showing the duo Rabbae/Brouwer. The text reads: “GreenLeft counts double”
Before the general election of 1994, GreenLeft organised an internal election on the party’s political leadership. Two duos entered: Ina Brouwer (former CPN) combined with Mohammed Rabbae (independent), while Paul Rosenmöller (independent) formed a combination with Leoni Sipkes (former PSP); there were also five individual candidates, including Wim de Boer (former chair of the PPR and member of the Senate), Herman Meijer (former CPN, future chair of the party) and Ineke van Gent (former PSP and future MP)).[11]
Some candidates ran in duos because they wanted to combine family life with politics. Brouwer, Rosenmöller and Sipkes already were MPs for GreenLeft, whilst Rabbae was new – he had been chair of the Dutch Centre for Foreigners. In the first round the duos ended up ahead of the others, but neither had an absolute majority. A second round was need which Brouwer and Rabbae won with 51%.[11] Brouwer became the first candidate and Rabbae second, the second duo Rosenmöller and Sipkes occupied the following place followed by Marijke Vos, former chair of the party. The idea of a dual top candidacy did not communicate well to the voters. GreenLeft lost one seat, leaving only five. Yet in the same election the centre-left Labour Party also lost a lot of seats.[10]
After the disappointing elections, Brouwer left parliament. She was replaced as party leader by Paul Rosenmöller and her seat was taken by Tara Singh Varma.[10] The charismatic Rosenmöller became the “unofficial leader” of the opposition against the first Kok cabinet because the largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Appeal, was unable to adapt well to its new role as opposition party.[7][12] Rosenmöller set out a new strategy: GreenLeft should offer alternatives instead of just rejecting the proposals made by the government.[13][14]
In the 1998 general election, GreenLeft more than doubled its seats to eleven. The charisma of the charismatic “unofficial leader” Rosenmöller played an important role in this.[14] Many new faces entered parliament, including Femke Halsema, a political talent who had left the Labour Party for GreenLeft in 1997.[15] The party began to speculate openly about joining government after the elections of 2002.[16][17]
The 1999 Kosovo War divided the party internally. The parliamentary party in the House of Representatives supported the NATO intervention, while the Senate parliamentary party was against the intervention. Several former PSP members within the House of Representatives parliamentary party began to openly speak out their doubts about the intervention. A compromise was found: GreenLeft would support the intervention as long as it limited itself to military targets. Prominent members of the founding parties including Marcus Bakker en Joop Vogt left the party over this issue.[18]
February 2001 Roel van Duijn and a few former members of The Greens joined GreenLeft.[19][20]
In 2001 the integrity of former MP Tara Singh Varma came into doubt: it was revealed that she had lied about her illness and that she had made promises to development organisations which she did not fulfill. In 2000 she had left parliament because as she claimed, she had only a few months to live before she would die of cancer. The TROS program “Opgelicht” (In English “Framed”) revealed that she had lied and that she did not have cancer.[19] Later she apologised on public television and claimed she suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder.[21]
In the same year the parliamentary party supported the invasion of Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of September 11 of the year. This invasion led to great upheaval within the party. Several former PSP members within the House of Representatives parliamentary party began to openly speak out their doubts about the intervention. Under pressure of internal opposition, led by former PSP members and the party’s youth organisation DWARS, the parliamentary party changed its position: the attacks should be cancelled.[19]
2002-now[edit]
The 2002 general election was characterised by changes in the political climate. The right-wing populist political commentator Pim Fortuyn entered politics. He had anti-establishment message, combined with a call for restrictions of immigration. Although his critique was oriented at the second Kok cabinet, Rosenmöller was one of the few politicians who could muster some resistance against his message. Days before the election Fortuyn was assassinated. Ab Harrewijn, GreenLeft MP and candidate also died.[22] Before and after the elections serious threats were made against Rosenmöller, his wife and his children. These events caused considerable stress for Rosenmöller.[23] GreenLeft lost one seat in the election, although it had gained more votes than in the 1998 elections. Before the 2003 general election Rosenmöller left parliament, citing the ongoing threats against his life and those of his family as the main reason. He was replaced as chair of the parliamentary party and top candidate by Femke Halsema. She was unable to keep ten seats and lost two.[22]
In 2003 GreenLeft almost unanimously turned against the Iraq War. It took part in the protests against the war, for instance by organising its party congress in Amsterdam at the day of the large demonstration, with an interval allowing its members to join the protest.[22]
At the end of 2003 Halsema temporarily left parliament to give birth to her twins. During her absence Marijke Vos took her place as chair of the parliamentary party.[24] When she returned to parliament, Halsema started a discussion about the principles of her party. She emphasized individual freedom, tolerance, self-realisation and emancipation. In one interview she called her party “the last liberal party of the Netherlands”[25] This led to considerable attention of media and other observers, which speculated about an ideological change.[24] In 2005 the party’s scientific bureau published the book “Vrijheid als Ideaal” (“Freedom as Ideal”) in which prominent opinion-makers explored the new political space and the position of the left within that space.[26] During the congress of February 2007 the party board was ordered to organize a party-wide discussion about the party’s principles.[27]
During the European Elections congress of 2004, the candidacy committee proposed that the chair of the GreenLeft delegation, Joost Lagendijk, should become the party’s top candidate in those elections. A group of members, led by Senator Leo Platvoet submitted a motion “We want to choose”. They wanted a serious choice for such an important office. The party’s board announced a new electoral procedure. During the congress Kathalijne Buitenweg, an MEP and candidate, announced wish to be considered for the position of top candidate. She narrowly won the elections from Lagendijk. This came as a great surprise to all. Especially for Buitenweg who had not written an acceptance speech and read out Lagendijk’s.[24]
In May 2005 MP Farah Karimi wrote a book in which discussed in detail how she had taken part in the Iranian Revolution, because this information was already known by the party board this did not lead to any upheaval.[28] In November 2005 the party board asked Senator Sam Pormes to give up his seat. Continuing rumours about his involvement with guerrilla-training in Yemen in the 1970s and the 1977 train hijacking by Moluccan youth and allegations of welfare fraud were harmful for the party, or at least so the party board claimed.
When Pormes refused to step down, the party board threatened to expel him. Pormes fought this decision. The party council of March 2006 sided with Pormes. Party chair Herman Meijer felt forced to resign. He was succeeded by Henk Nijhof who was chose by the party council in May 2006. In November 2006 Pormes left the Senate, he was replaced by Goos Minderman.[29]
2006 election posters showing Halsema. The text reads: Grow along, GreenLeft. The turret is the official working office of the Dutch Prime Minister.
In the 2006 Dutch municipal election the party stayed relatively stable, losing only a few seats. After the elections GreenLeft took part in 75 local executives, including Amsterdam where MP Marijke Vos became an alderwoman.[29]
In preparation of the 2006 general election the party held a congress in October. It elected Halsema, again the only candidate, as the party’s top candidate. MEP Kathalijne Buitenweg and comedian Vincent Bijlo were last candidates. In the 2006 elections the party lost one seat.[29]
In the subsequent cabinet formation an initial exploratory round among the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Labour Paty (PvdA) and Socialist Party (SP) failed, Halsema announced that GreenLeft would not be involved in further discussion at that point in time, as the party lost, was too small, and had less in common with CDA than the SP had.[29] Following this decision an internal debate about the political course and the leadership of Halsema re-erupted. The debate does not just concern the series of lost elections and the decision not to participate in the formation talks, but also the elitist image of the party, the new liberal course, initiated by Halsema, and the lack of party democracy. Since the last weeks of January 2007 several prominent party members have voiced their doubts including former leader Ina Brouwer, Senator Leo Platvoet and MEP Joost Lagendijk.[27] In reaction to this the party board has set up a commission led by former MP and chair of the PPR Bram van Ojik. They looked into the lost series of elections. In the summer of 2007 another committee was formed to organize a larger debate about the course of the party’s principles, organization and strategy. Van Ojik also led this committee. The committee implemented a motion already adopted by the party’s congress in 2006 to re-evaluate the party’s principle in light of the party’s course started by Halsema ion 2004.[29] Over the course of 2007 and 2008 the committee organised an internal debate about the party’s principles, organisation and strategy. In November 2008 this led to the adoption of a new manifesto of principles.
In August 2008, GreenLeft parliamentarian Wijnand Duyvendak published a book in which he admitted to a burglary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in order to steal plans for nuclear power plants. This led to his resignation on August 14, after media reported that the burglary also led to threats against civil servants.[30][31] He was replaced by Jolande Sap.[32]
In 2008 MEPs Joost Lagendijk and Kathalijne Buitenweg announced that they would not seek a new term in the European Parliament. The party had to elect a new top candidate for the 2009 European elections. There were five candidates for this position: Amsterdam city councillor Judith Sargentini, former MEP Alexander de Roo, senator Tineke Strik, environmental researcher Bas Eickhout and Niels van den Berge assistant of MEP Buitenweg. In an internal referendum Sargentini was elected. The party congress put Eickhout on a second position on the list.
On 18 April 2010 the party congress composed the list of candidates for the 2010 general election. Two sitting MPs Ineke van Gent and Femke Halsema were granted dispensation to stand for a fourth term. Halsema was re-elected as party leader. Van Gent was put as fifth on the party list. All of the first five candidates were sitting MPs and four were women. Their other high newcomers were former Greenpeace director Liesbeth van Tongeren and chairman of CNV youth Jesse Klaver. The party won 10 seats in the election and participated in the formation talks of a Green/Purple government.[citation needed]
Name[edit]
The name “GroenLinks” (until 1992 “Groen Links” with a space between Groen and Links) is a compromise between the PPR and the CPN and the PSP. The PPR wanted the word “Green” in the name of the party, the PSP and the CPN the word “Left“. It also emphasises the core ideals of the party, environmental sustainability and social justice.[8]
In 1984 the common list of the PPR, PSP and CPN for the 1984 European elections was called Green Progressive Accord at that time the PPR did not want to accept the word “left” in the name of the political combination. The parties had entered in the 1989 European elections as the Rainbow (Regenboog), in reference to the Rainbow Group in the European Parliament in which had participated between 1984 and 1989[7]
Ideology and issues[edit]
Ideology[edit]
The party combines green with left-wing ideals.[12] The core ideals of GreenLeft are codified in the party’s programme of principles (called “Partij voor de Toekomst” – Party for the Future).[33] The party places itself in the freedom-loving tradition of the left. Its principles include
- The protection of the Earth, ecosystems and a respectful treatment of animals
- A fair distribution of natural resources between all citizens of the world and all generations.
- A just distribution of income and fair chance for everyone to work, care, education and recreation.
- A pluralist society where everyone can participate in freedom. The party combines openness with a sense of community.
- Strengthening the international rule of law, in order to ensure peace and respect for human rights.
The party’s principles reflect the ideological convergence between the four founding parties which came from different ideological traditions: the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People’s Party, from a progressive Christian tradition; and the Pacifist Socialist Party and the Communist Party of the Netherlands from the socialist and communist traditions. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s the parties had come to embrace environmentalism and feminism; they all favoured democratisation of society and had opposed the creation of new nuclear plants and the placement of new nuclear weapons in the Netherlands.[7]
Halsema, the former political leader of the party, has started a debate about the ideological course of GreenLeft. She emphasised the freedom loving tradition of the left and chose freedom as key value. Her course is called left-liberal by herself and observers,[34] although Halsema herself claims that she does not want to force an ideological change.
Following Isaiah Berlin, Halsema distinguishes between positive and negative freedom.[35] Negative freedom is according to Halsema the freedom citizens from government influence; she applies this concept especially to the multicultural society and the rechtsstaat, where the government should protect the rights of citizens and not limit them. Positive freedom is the emancipation of citizens from poverty and discrimination. Halsema wants to apply this concept to welfare state and the environment where government should take more action. According to Halsema, GreenLeft is undogmatic party, that has anarchist tendencies.[35]
Proposals[edit]
The election manifesto for the 2010 elections was adopted in April of that year. It was titled “Klaar voor de Toekomst” (“Prepared for the Future”). The manifesto emphasises international cooperation, welfare state reform, environmental policy and social tolerance.[36]
GreenLeft considers itself as a “social reform party” which is able to reform the government finances as well as increasing the position of “outsiders” on the labour market, such as migrant youth, single parents, workers with short term-contracts and people with disabilities. The means that it disagrees with the parties on the right which, in the eyes of GreenLeft, were only oriented towards cutting costs and did not offer the worst off a chance for work, emancipation and participation.[37] But, unlike the other opposition parties of the left, the party does not want to defend the current welfare state either which the party calls “powerless”, because it merely offers the worst off a benefit, but not a perspective for work.[37] The party wants to reform the Dutch welfare state so it will benefit “outsiders” – those who have been excluded from the welfare state until now. To increase employment the GreenLeft proposes a participation contract. The unemployment benefit should be increased and limited to one year. In this period people would have to look for a job or education. If at the end of the year one should not succeed in finding a job, the government will offer one a job for the minimum wage. In order to create more employment they want to implement the green tax shift, which will lower taxes on lower paid labour. This would be compensated by higher taxes on pollution. In order to increase the perspectives for the underprivileged, it wants to invest in education, especially the vmbo. In order to ensure that migrants have a better chance for jobs it wants to deal firmly with discrimination, especially on the labour market. The party also wants to decrease income differences by making child benefits.[36] The party also favours reform of the government pensions: after 45 years of employment one should get the right to a pension. If one starts working young, one is able to stop working earlier, than if one starts working when one is older. Receiving unemployment or disability benefits is counted as work, as well as caring for children or family members. The system of mortgage interest deductions should be abolished over a forty-year period.
International cooperation is an important theme for the party. This includes development cooperation with underdeveloped countries. GreenLeft wants to increase spending on development aid to 0.8% of the Gross National Product. It wants to open the European markets to goods from Third World countries, under conditions of fair trade. In order to ensure free and fair trade it wants to increase the democratise international economic organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The party also favours greater international control over financial markets. GreenLeft favours European integration, but critical about the current policies of the European Commission. It favoured the European Constitution, but after it was voted down in the 2005 referendum, GreenLeft advocated a new treaty which emphasised democracy and subsidiarity. The party is critical about the war against terrorism. It wants to strengthen the peacekeeping powers of the United Nations and reform the Dutch armed forces into a peace force. The functions of NATO should be taken over by the European Union and the United Nations.
GreenLeft wants to solve environmental problems, especially climate change, by stimulating durable alternatives. The party wants to use taxes and emissions trading to stimulate alternative energy as an alternative to both fossil fuel and nuclear plants. It wants to close all nuclear plants in the Netherlands and impose a tax on the use of coal in energy production, in order to discourage the building of new coal-based power plants. Moreover, it wants to stimulate energy saving. It wants to invest in clean public transport, as an alternative to private transport. Investments in public transport can be financed by not expanding highways and imposing tolls on the use of roads (called “rekening rijden”). The party wants to stimulate organic farming through taxes as an alternative to industrial agriculture. Moreover, GreenLeft wants to codify animal rights in the Constitution.[36]
GreenLeft values individual freedom and the rule of law. The party wants to legalise soft drugs. It wants to protect civil rights on the internet by extending constitutional protection for free communication to email and other modern technologies. It also favours a reform of copyright to allow non-commercial reproduction and the use of open-source software in the public sector. In the long term it seeks to abolish the monarchy and create a republic. It also favours a reduction of the size of the government bureaucracy, for instance by decreasing the number of Dutch ministries and abolishing the Senate. Finally, GreenLeft favours liberal immigration and asylum policies. It wants to empower victims of human trafficking by giving them a residence permit and it wants to abolish the income requirements for marriage migration.[36]
Electoral results[edit]
Parliament (States-General, Staten-Generaal)[edit]
| House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) | ||||||
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Government | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 362,304 | 4.1 (#6) |
6 / 150
|
in opposition | ||
| 1994 | 311,399 | 3.5 (#6) |
5 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
| 1998 | 625,968 | 7.3 (#5) |
11 / 150
|
6 |
in opposition | |
| 2002 | 660,692 | 7.0 (#5) |
10 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
| 2003 | 495,802 | 5.1 (#6) |
8 / 150
|
2 |
in opposition | |
| 2006 | 453,054 | 4.6 (#6) |
7 / 150
|
1 |
in opposition | |
| 2010 | 628,096 | 6.7 (#7) |
10 / 150
|
3 |
in opposition | |
| 2012 | 219,896 | 2.3 (#8) |
4 / 150
|
6 |
in opposition | |
| Senate (Eerste Kamer) | |||||
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 |
4 / 75
|
||||
| 1995 |
4 / 75
|
0 |
|||
| 1999 |
8 / 75
|
4 |
|||
| 2003 | 10,866 | 6.7 |
5 / 75
|
3 |
|
| 2007 | 9,074 | 5.6 |
4 / 75
|
1 |
|
| 2011 | 10,757 | 6.5 |
5 / 75
|
1 |
|
| 2015 | ? | ? |
4 / 75
|
-1 |
|
Provincial elections (Provinciale Staten)[edit]
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 |
36 / 758
|
||||
| 1995 |
34 / 758
|
2 |
|||
| 1999 | |||||
| 2003 |
50 / 764
37 / 564
|
||||
| 2007 |
33 / 564
|
4 |
|||
| 2011 | 6.3 (#7) |
34 / 566
|
1 |
||
| 2015 | (#7) |
30 / 570
|
4 |
European Parliament[edit]
| Election year | # of overall votes |
% of overall vote |
# of overall seats won |
+/– | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 154,362 | 3.7 (#6) |
1 / 31
|
||
| 1999 | 419,869 | 11.9 (#4) |
4 / 31
|
3 |
|
| 2004 | 352,201 | 7.4 (#4) |
2 / 27
|
2 |
|
| 2009 | 404,020 | 8.9 (#6) |
3 / 25
3 / 26
|
1 0 |
|
| 2014 | 329,906 | 6.9 (#7) |
2 / 26
|
1 |
Representation and support[edit]
Overview[edit]
This table shows the results of GreenLeft elections to the House of Representatives (HoR), Senate (S), European Parliament (EP), States-Provincial (SP) and municipal (GR) elections, as well as the number of politicians in provincial (GS) and local executives (aldermen). It also shows the party’s political leadership: the “fractievoorzitter“, the chair of the parliamentary party and the “lijsttrekker“, the party’s top candidate in the general election. These posts are normally taken by the party leader. The member count and the partijvoorzitter, the chair of the party’s organisation are also shown. The party chair has an organisational function and is not part of the political leadership of the party.
| Year | HoR | S | EP | SP | GS | GR | Aldermen | Parl. Party Chair | Top candidate | Party Chair | Members |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 32 | 0 | 254[38] | unknown | Ria Beckers | Ria Beckers | Leo Platvoet | unknown |
| 1990 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 32 | 0 | 385 | 16 | Ria Beckers | no elections | Marijke Vos | 15,900 |
| 1991 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 36 | 0 | 385 | 16 | Ria Beckers | no elections | Marijke Vos | 14,971 |
| 1992 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 36 | 0 | 385 | 16 | Ria Beckers | no elections | Marijke Vos | 13,548 |
| 1993 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 36 | 0 | 385 | 16 | Peter Lankhorst | no elections | Marijke Vos | 12,500 |
| 1994 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 36 | 0 | 380[39] | 45[40] | Paul Rosenmöller | Ina Brouwer (Mohammed Rabbae was her co-top candidate) |
Marjan Lucas | 12,500 |
| 1995 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 37[41] | 0 | 380 | 45 | Paul Rosenmöller | no elections | Ab Harrewijn | 12,000 |
| 1996 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 37 | 0 | 380 | 45 | Paul Rosenmöller | no elections | Ab Harrewijn | 11.700 |
| 1997 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 37 | 0 | 380 | 45 | Paul Rosenmöller | no elections | Ab Harrewijn | 11,873 |
| 1998 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 37 | 0 | 430[39] | 62[42] | Paul Rosenmöller | Paul Rosenmöller | Ina Brouwer | 13,821 |
| 1999 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 77[43] | 1 | 430 | 62 | Paul Rosenmöller | no elections | Mirjam de Rijk | 13,855 |
| 2000 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 77 | 1 | 430 | 62 | Paul Rosenmöller | no elections | Mirjam de Rijk | 14,314 |
| 2001 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 77 | 1 | 430 | 62 | Paul Rosenmöller | no elections | Mirjam de Rijk | 15,037 |
| 2002 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 77 | 1 | 410[39] | 59[44] | Paul Rosenmöller | Paul Rosenmöller | Miriam de Rijk | 18,469 |
| 2003 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 51 | 1 | 410 | 59 | Femke Halsema | Femke Halsema | Herman Meijer | 20,503 |
| 2004 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 51 | 1 | 410 | 59 | Femke Halsema | no elections | Herman Meijer | 20,709 |
| 2005 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 51 | 1 | 410 | 59 | Femke Halsema | no elections | Herman Meijer | 21,383 |
| 2006 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 51 | 1 | 417[39] | 93[44] | Femke Halsema | Femke Halsema | Henk Nijhof | 23,490 |
| 2007 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 31[45] | 2 | 417 | 93 | Femke Halsema | no elections | Henk Nijhof | 21,410 |
| 2008 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 31 | 2 | 417 | 93 | Femke Halsema | no elections | Henk Nijhof | 20,324 |
| 2009 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 31 | 2 | 417 | 93 | Femke Halsema | no elections | Henk Nijhof | 20,961 |
| 2010 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 31 | 2 | 436 | 75 | Femke Halsema | Femke Halsema | Henk Nijhof | 27,472 |
| 2011 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 33 | 2 | 436 | 75 | Jolande Sap | no elections | Henk Nijhof | ? |
| 2012 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 33 | 2 | 436 | 75 | Jolande Sap -> Bram van Ojik |
Jolande Sap | Heleen Weening -> Eduard van Zuijlen |
? |
| 2013 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 33 | 2 | 436 | 75 | Bram van Ojik | no elections | Eduard van Zuijlen -> Rik Grashoff |
? |
| 2014 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 33 | 2 | ? | ? | Bram van Ojik | no elections | Rik Grashoff | ? |
| 2015 | 4 | 4 | 2 | ? | ? | ? | ? | Bram van Ojik -> Jesse Klaver |
no elections | Rik Grashoff -> Marjolein Meijer |
? |
| Sources | [46] | [47] | [48] | [49] | [49] | [49] | [46] | [50] | [51] |
Parliamentary group leader Jesse Klaver
Senate group leader Tineke Strik
EP-delegation leader Bas Eickhout
Members of the House of Representatives[edit]
Following the 2012 elections, the party now has four seats in the House of Representatives:
- Jesse Klaver, current Parliamentary group leader. Spokesperson on social affairs and education. In parliament since 2010. He was chair of the youth organisation of the CNV before entering parliament.[52]
- Rik Grashoff (replaces Bram van Ojik)
- Liesbeth van Tongeren, spokesperson on the environment. In parliament since 2010. She was director of the Dutch branch of GreenPeace before entering parliament.[52]
- Linda Voortman (replaces Jolande Sap)
Members of the Senate[edit]
See also: List of Senate members of GreenLeft
Following the 2015 elections the party has four representatives in the Senate:
- Tineke Strik, Senate group leader. She is spokesperson on home affairs, foreign affairs and social affairs. She has been a Senate member since 2007. In addition to her membership of the Senate, she is a legal researcher. She was an alderwoman in Wageningen for GreenLeft.[53]
- Ruard Ganzevoort, theologist and professor at the Free University in Amsterdam. Senate member since 2011.
- Frits Lindmeijer
- Marijke Vos, former MP and alderwoman in Amsterdam. Senate member since 2011.
Members of the European Parliament[edit]
After the 2014 European Parliament elections, the party has two representatives in the European Parliament:[54]
- Bas Eickhout – chair of the GreenLeft delegation, member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and substitute for the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.[55]
- Judith Sargentini – member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European parliament and substitute for the Committee on Development.[55]
Municipal and provincial government[edit]
|
|
This article needs to be updated. (June 2015) |
On the municipal level, the party provides 8 mayors (out of 414, as of December 2008),[1][56] in smaller municipalities such as Bloemendaal, Diemen and Wormerland, these are also appointed by the Minister of the Interior. GreenLeft did not perform particularly well in the 2006 municipal elections, losing 14 of its 415 seats, making it the fourth largest party in the Netherlands on the municipal level.[57]In the formation of municipal executives it was more successful and the number of municipal executives GreenLeft was part of grew from around 70 to around 100.[58]
It is part of the municipal executive of several larger cities notably Nijmegen, Utrecht, the Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, where former MP Marijke Vos was alderwoman. GreenLeft has 70 members of borough-level legislatures, 53 in Amsterdam and 17 in Rotterdam.
On the provincial level, GreenLeft provides one Queen’s Commissioner (out of 12) in North Holland. Queen’s Commissioners are appointed by the Minister of the Interior. GreenLeft is part of the North Holland provincial executive. It holds 51 seats in provincial legislatures. In the following figure one can see the election results of the provincial election of 2007 per province.[59] It shows the areas where GreenLeft is strong, namely the urban areas like North Holland and Utrecht. The party is weaker in rural provinces like Friesland and Zeeland, but also strong in rural Groningen, where the Communist Party of the Netherlands, one of the founding parties of GreenLeft was very strong.[citation needed]
| Province | Votes (%) | Seats | Provincial Executives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groningen | 7,6% | 3 | opposition |
| Friesland | 3.9% | 2 | opposition |
| Drenthe | 4.7% | 2 | opposition |
| Overijssel | 4.3% | 2 | opposition |
| Flevoland | 5.5% | 2 | opposition |
| Gelderland | 5.9% | 3 | opposition |
| Utrecht | 9.0% | 4 | opposition |
| Noord-Holland | 9.7% | 5 | Bart Heller (prov. exec.)[60] |
| Zuid-Holland | 5.9% | 3 | opposition |
| Zeeland | 4.9% | 2 | Marten Wiersma (prov. exec.)[61] |
| North-Brabant | 4.1% | 2 | opposition |
| Limburg | 4.2% | 2 | opposition |
Percentage of GreenLeft voters in the 2006 elections per municipality
Electorate[edit]
As can be seen on the map on the right, GreenLeft tends to do particularly well in larger cities, especially ones that host a university, such as Amsterdam (where it scored 12,5%), Utrecht (12,2%) and Wageningen (11,8%), Nijmegen (10,4%) and Leiden (10,0%).[62] More women vote for GreenLeft than men by a margin of 20%.[63] The party also disproportionately appeals to homosexual voters.[64] The party also polls well among migrant voters, especially those from Turkey and Morocco, where its support is twice as high as in the general population.[65][66]
GreenLeft voters have an eccentric position in their preferences for particular policies. Between 1989 and 2003 they were the most leftwing voters in the Netherlands, often a little more to the left than voters of the SP.[67] These voters are in favor of the redistribution of wealth, free choice for euthanasia, opening the borders for asylum seekers, the multicultural society and are firmly against building new nuclear plants.[67]
Style and campaign[edit]
The logo of GreenLeft is the name of the party with the word “Green” written in red and the word “Left” written in green since 1994. Additional colours used in the logo are white, yellow and blue. An earlier logo, used between 1989 and 1994, and which can be seen on the poster above showed a variation of a peace sign projected on a green triangle on which “PPR PSP CPN EVP” was written and next to it GreenLeft in green and pink.
Many well-known Dutch people have supported GreenLeft election campaigns. In 1989 choreographer Rudi van Dantzig and writer Astrid Roemer were last candidates.[68] In 2006 comedian Vincent Bijlo shared this position with MEP Kathalijne Buitenweg.[69] Comedian Sara Kroos,[70] rapper Raymzter,[71] astronaut Wubbo Ockels[72] en soccer player Khalid Boulahrouz,[73][74] business man Harry de Winter,[73][74] journalist Anil Ramdas,[73] actrice Kim van Kooten,[73] commediene Sanne Wallis de Vries,[73] comedian Herman Finkers,[73] artist Herman van Veen,[73] soccer player-columnist Jan Mulder[73][74] and writer Geert Mak[74] have also committed their name to (part of) the 2006 or 2007 GreenLeft election campaign. In 2004 singer Ellen ten Damme, poet Rutger Kopland and presenter Martijn Krabbé supported the European election campaign.[75]
From 2007 onwards GroenLinks has adopted the idea of a “permanent campaign”, which implies that campaign activities are held even when there is no immediate connection to an election.[76] Permanent campaign activities are intended to create and maintain a base level of sympathy and knowledge about the party platform. The introduction of guerrilla gardening in the Netherlands in 2008 was heavily supported by GreenLeft,[77] as part of the permanent campaign.
Party Bureau of GreenLeft in Utrecht
Organisation[edit]
Organisational structure[edit]
The highest organ of GreenLeft is the party congress, which is open to all members. The congress elects the party-board, it decides on the order of the candidates for national and European elections and it has a final say over the party platform. The congress convenes at least once every year in spring or when needed. The party board consists of fifteen members who are elected for a two-year term. The chairperson of this board is the only paid position on the board, the others are unpaid. The chairperson together with four other boardmembers (the vice-chair, the treasurer, the secretary, the European secretary and the international secretary) handles the daily affairs and meet every two weeks while the other ten board members meet only once a month.[78]
For the months that the congress does not convene, a party council takes over its role. It consists out of 80 representatives of all the 250 municipal branches. The party board and the nationally elected representatives of the party are responsible to the party council. It has the right to fill vacancies in the board, make changes to the party constitution and takes care of the party’s finances.[78]
GreenLeft MPs face relatively strong regulation: MPs are not allowed to run for more than three terms and a relatively high percentage of the income of MPs is taken by the party.[78]
GreenLeft has 250 branches in nearly all Dutch municipalities and each province. There are multiple municipalities in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where every borough has its own branch and they have federal branches at the municipal level. Branches enjoy considerable independence, and take care of their own campaigns, lists of candidates and programs for elections. Provincial congresses meet at least every year and municipal congresses more often.[78] The total number of members of GreenLeft has been steadily increasing over the last ten years and had 23,490 members in of January 2007.[79]
There are several independent organisations which are linked to GreenLeft:
- DWARS, the independent youth organisation of GreenLeft
- De Linker Wang (“The Left Cheek”), platform for Religion and Politics, which is a progressive Christian platform, which was formed by former members of the Evangelical People’s Party.[80]
- Scientific Bureau GreenLeft, the independent political think tank which publishes “De Helling”[81] (Dutch for “the Slope”).[82]
- PinkLeft, an LGBT organization for GreenLeft members.[83]
GreenLeft is also active on the European and the global stage. It is a founding member of the European Green Party and the Global Greens. Its MEPs sit in the The Greens–European Free Alliance group. GreenLeft cooperates with seven other Dutch parties in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, an institute which supports democratic development in developing countries.[84]
Relationships to other parties[edit]
GreenLeft was founded as a mid-sized party to the left of the Labour Party (PvdA). In the 1994 elections however the Socialist Party (SP) also entered parliament. GreenLeft now takes a central position in the Dutch left between the socialist SP, which is more to the left, and the social-democratic PvdA, which is more to the centre.[85] This position is exemplified by the call of Femke Halsema to form a left-wing coalition after the 2006 elections, knowing that such a coalition is only possible with GreenLeft. The electoral alliance between SP and GL in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 elections,[86] and between GreenLeft and PvdA in the 2004 European elections are examples of this position.[87] In the 2007 First Chamber election it had an electoral alliance with the Party for the Animals.[88] More and more, however, GreenLeft is seen as the most culturally progressive of the three parties.[89][90]
Alex Infohub 