ANP extension
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
Less than six months after the blow to the previous members’ assembly, the VVD holds another members’ congress. And again it will also be a thorny subject: the asylum law that the state secretary of the VVD Van der Burg has dragged away from the gates of hell. This time the party wants to paint a better picture.
Why does part of the VVD look back with shudder on the congress of June 11, when the majority of 51 percent of members passed a motion against the cabinet’s nitrogen plans and thus against her own nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal. Since Mark Rutte took office as party leader, there has never been such harsh criticism from the grassroots.
Applause machine
And it remained turbulent. At the beginning of October, the members of the VVD chose a new party chairman and this was not the candidate Onno Hoes from the party council, but his opponent Eric Wetzels. That was one too sensitive touch on fingers of the party leadership in The Hague. Wetzels wants members and departments to play a bigger role. He also thinks the conferences should be done as a clapping machine for the party leader.
After that it became even more tense: the parliamentary group continued to oppose the ‘coercive law’, with which the same secretary of state of the VVD wants all the municipalities to cooperate in welcoming asylum seekers. It was soon dubbed the “Spread Act”, in an attempt to take the sting out of the conflict, but to no avail.
Party leader Rutte had to get involved to break the deadlock. It worked after 1.00pm five-hour “spicy conversation”., in which the fist will have been hit on the table. Had the group kept its leg stiff, it could easily have led to a cabinet crisis.
The fall congress should close ranks again, is the idea. That’s why the program has been adapted in advance. Instead of a question-and-answer session with Rutte, the VVD leader will deliver a speech in the morning to set the tone and get ahead of critics.
We then proceeded to vote on part of the motions presented. Sitting there some critics of the asylum law between, from exponents concerned about the too left-wing course of the party, the high influx of asylum seekers and the diminishing influence of the local government. The question is whether they will be accepted.
The VVD Fall Conference can be followed live from 10am onwards NPO Politics and News. Rutte speaks at 10:45.
