This week, cooperation between political parties seems to have returned for a while. Ten group leaders (not only from the coalition but also from the opposition) signed an open letter calling on the cabinet to take the lead in imposing sanctions against Iran’s barbaric policies.
VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie, but also PvdA, GroenLinks, SP, DENK, JA21 and SGP want the cabinet in Europe to take the lead in including the Revolutionary Guard, “the backbone of the Iranian regime”, on the terrorist list organisations.places. This military branch of the Iranian regime is responsible for numerous arrests, beatings and torture of protesters.
The joint call to the cabinet is an initiative by Sophie Hermans (VVD) and Gert-Jan Segers (Christian Union), prompted by a motion on sanctions against Iran presented by the ten party leaders just before Christmas. That’s why Hermans and Segers asked the motion’s co-sponsors to sign the letter as well. The ten parties in the House of Representatives occupy 112 of the 150 seats, a large two-thirds majority. It is a strong declaration of political unity, which has not been seen in the Chamber for years. They usually fight outside the tent.
The question now is whether the Netherlands will be able to get Europe to agree to impose sanctions on Iran that are as severe as the EU has and will still do against Russia. Political parties want to support the millions of Iranians demanding freedom, some of whom have to pay the death penalty. Following the US lead, political groups in The Hague want sanctions against specific people guilty of human rights violations in Iran.
But that call could have been much more powerful if other parties had also put their names under the letter. What about Laurens Dassen van Volt, whose faction of him can also be assumed to be in favor of the call to government? Or by single players like Pieter Omtzigt, Caroline van der Plas, Sylvana Simons and Liane de Haan? Even a large party like the PVV could have easily accepted the letter. This can be seen from the Christmas motion which has the same meaning as the letter and which was accepted almost across the board. Only the Forum for Democracy voted against.
But PVV, Party for the Animals, Van Haga Group, Volt, fraction The Hague, BoerBurgerBeweging, Bij1, Member Omtzigt and Member Gündoğan (along with ten other factions) are missing from the brochure. Am I against the content? No, they just weren’t asked to sign. According to the initiators, there was no malicious intent behind this; it was not a conscious strategy to keep the other parties out. According to a spokesperson, the other parties were obviously free to co-sign the motion previously filed. Then they were also asked to sign the open letter.
It will certainly not have been a malicious intent, but The Hague has lost an opportunity for unity, for political solidarity. And that’s a shame in a time when polarization predominates.
