In a television debate, the Labor Party and GroenLinks will take on Mark Rutte’s ‘right-wing’ VVD as a joint ‘left-wing cloud’ tonight. The left-wing parties are working together more and more closely nationally, but in the province there appears to be quite a bit of disagreement about important progressive themes.
News hour last week made an inventory of the answers that the two parties gave to various progressive statements in the Kieskompas. This showed that the parties are opposed to each other on some issues.
On the Kieskompas website, political parties indicate to what extent they agree with statements on various subjects. In this way, voters can see which party best suits their views. The differences between GroenLinks and PvdA are particularly visible on themes such as housing, employment and nature management.
The PvdA and GroenLinks are flirting with each other, but they do have major differences in terms of content.
In Drenthe, for example, GroenLinks thinks that more windmills should be built, but the Labor Party thinks that landscape pollution. The PvdA believes that geese may be shot in North Holland to protect crops. GroenLinks disagrees. Or take Lelystad Airport, in Flevoland. Should the province be committed to opening that airport? Yes, says the PvdA in that province. GroenLinks strongly disagrees with this.
The provincial departments of GroenLinks and PvdA also disagree about the future of other airports. In the case of Groningen Airport, this is evident from the answers entered in the Kieskompas, in the case of Airport Twente, this was evident this week during a party leader debate by 1Twente.
News hour presented these deviating positions to the director of the Kieskompas, Willem Blanken, and also spoke about this with provincial PvdA and GroenLinks party leaders in Flevoland and Zeeland. According to Blanken, the differences between GroenLinks and PvdA are greater than the differences between right-wing parties such as JA21, FvD and BVNL.
“That is tight-knit football with almost no differences in terms of content. But those right-wing parties are actually fragmented and have distanced themselves from each other. The PvdA and GroenLinks are flirting with each other, but have major differences in terms of content.” Blanken is curious how the unification process between the parties will continue: “The discussion will be really complicated on certain points.”
Housing construction at the expense of green countryside
The question of whether homes may be built in green countryside divides GroenLinks and PvdA in almost every province. Electoral compass director Blanken: “With such a statement you see that it is about the green principles of GroenLinks versus the more traditional housing background of the PvdA. You see these differences throughout almost all provinces.”
In Zeeland, the only province where PvdA and GroenLinks are participating in the upcoming elections with one joint electoral list, the party is the only one to answer ‘neutral’ to this statement. “That seems like a compromise,” says Blanken. When asked, the party leader of PvdA/GroenLinks in Zeeland confirmed that she did not want to make a choice about housing at the expense of green countryside, because she believes it is not necessary to build in green countryside in Zeeland.
But after asking News hour to the province of Zeeland, it appears that building plans have already been approved in that province in the green countryside. It will occasionally remain a difficult decision for the parties in the coming four years, says party leader Pijpelink.
