GroenLinks and PvdA have seen a significant increase in membership since the elections

• Noor de Kort

  editor Online

GroenLinks and PvdA have gained a striking number of new members since the House of Representatives elections, according to a survey by NOS. The membership numbers of other political parties also grew last week, but according to most parties, this increase is “normal” during election times.

GroenLinks gained 2,242 new members in the week after the elections. “This week’s increase is many times greater than in previous elections,” says a spokesperson for GroenLinks. “It concerns both members who are returning and people who have never been a member of a party.”

The growth in the PvdA is also striking, according to a spokesperson. The party was able to register 1,502 new members. In two previous elections, the party said it grew by 100 to 300 members.

The GroenLinks-PvdA combination became the second party last week with 25 seats. The big winner of the elections was the PVV with 37 seats, but for this party any effect of the election results on the number of members is not visible. The party only has one member: Geert Wilders.

The VVD did not want to cooperate with this publication. The party became the third party last week, but lost ten seats.

In addition to the VVD, Denk also did not want to share membership numbers. Forum for Democracy did not respond to the request for information. The SGP was unable to provide figures for last week; the party said it grew by about 200 members in the past month.

According to the PvdA spokesperson, the increase in members “has everything to do with the election results”. “People who find these disappointing will look for parties that respond to them.” GroenLinks does not dare to link growth one-to-one to the big win for the PVV last week. “But it was striking that immediately after the first exit poll we had a new registration every few minutes.”

But according to the two parties, the increase is also due to enthusiasm about the cooperation between GroenLinks and PvdA. There would also have been a peak when the collaboration was announced.

The growth is particularly interesting in the PvdA, says Leonie de Jonge of the Documentation Center for Dutch Political Parties. According to her, the party has had fewer members every year since 2013. “It seems that they have managed to reverse this for the first time in ten years. Now the question is whether this is a temporary reflex or whether it will last.”

NSC, which became the fourth party with 20 seats, also has a large number of new members since last week: 830. Pieter Omtzigt’s party participated in the elections for the first time last week. “We are still growing as fast as ever,” says a spokesperson.

“We often see large growth in membership numbers with new parties,” says De Jonge. “We saw that at BBB and BVNL in 2022.” According to her, there was a decline in members of political parties in absolute numbers between the 1980s and 2015. But since 2017, the number of members has been increasing again. That year, Forum for Democracy grew considerably, which was new at the time. It is now the largest party in terms of members.

In addition to GroenLinks and PvdA, more left-wing and progressive parties have grown since last week, such as Party for the Animals, D66, Volt and the SP. That increase is comparable to the growth in the week after previous House of Representatives elections, say PvdD, Volt and the SP. The CDA and the Christian Union also have more members than before the elections, although this is not a huge number.

“It is common for parties to win members during elections,” says De Jonge. “For example, in the 2021 election year, membership grew by 15 percent, which is quite a lot.” Last year, a year without national elections, the number of members grew a lot less, according to De Jonge: by 1.3 percent.

A party that has fewer members after last week is JA21. According to a spokesperson, this has to do with the reduction from 3 seats to 1 seat in the House of Representatives. “People are disappointed about that.”