Wilders in the government, that is probably the best thing that could happen to the new SP leader

The SP is in danger of becoming a party that is frustrated to the core. And yet in these times there should soon be opportunities again for a party that operates like this.

When Emile Roemer left as SP leader six years ago, the word ‘frustration’ was often mentioned: for a while he seemed like a serious candidate for the Torentje, but he made a mistake and never regained the momentum. Not the SP, but GroenLinks, D66 and the Party for the Animals benefited from the enormous decline of the PvdA.

Lilian Marijnissen took over and friend and foe agreed that there were great electoral opportunities for her. They certainly did not shrink in the years that followed. Marijnissen proved to be an enthusiastic speaker, her party colleague Renske Leijten played a leading role in exposing the abuses at the Tax Authorities, and when the election campaign this year seemed to revolve largely around ‘social security’ and labor migration, SP members were pleasantly surprised. on.

After all, which party has better credentials on those issues? No other faction was so directly involved in so many actions in which teachers, police officers, nurses, cleaners and security guards drew attention to their increasingly dire financial situation. No party has drawn so much attention to the malaise of flex workers. How many threatened restructurings or factory closures was the SP on site with the red banners before the unions arrived? The SP was already concerned fifteen years ago about the miserable existence of many migrant workers. The deterioration of public facilities at district level has been an SP pillar from the very beginning.

Yet it didn’t work. Marijnissen only suffered election defeats. And the analysis was always that another politician ran away with the dominant themes at the decisive moment. This time Pieter Omtzigt’s NSC managed to claim social security. Labor migration has now become a serious topic of discussion for the right-wing parties for the first time. Just like Roemer, Marijnissen did not hide her frustration: ‘Hello, where have you been the past few years?’

Yet she too must have seen the turn the campaign took in the last few weeks. It was almost exclusively about immigration, in the broadest sense. Often also about asylum seekers. And that is one of the few topics on which the SP does not have a crystallized position on, torn as the party is by the pursuit of international solidarity with the wretched of the earth and the concerns about the consequences for the Dutch working-class neighborhoods where the party likes to campaign. Marijnissen tried it briefly shortly after taking office, when she said that she had no objections in principle to immigration deals with African countries. It remained too controversial within our own circles to fully campaign on it.

The fact is that many of the voters who once voted for father Jan have now sought refuge in Geert Wilders’ PVV, which has uncritically copied many socio-economic SP positions. ‘But what does Wilders really do for those voters?’ has been said in the SP for years.

The PVV will probably have to co-govern for a while to give the SP a powerful weapon with that question. Then, just like when Marijnissen started, there are still plenty of opportunities.