Halving threatens for CDA, voters are defecting to BBB and JA21

Jo-Annes de Bat, CDA party leader in Zeeland, is a satisfied man. Contrary to the national trend, the CDA is doing well in Zeeland: the party could become the largest party, just like four years ago. De Bat even hopes for a seat. “I promised my team eight seats, I want to keep that.”

He has made hundreds of working visits in recent years. Visit after visit, he tries to convince voters to stay with his party. “I can only tell our story: the story that we are tackling the major issues together with the Zeelanders. I think that story can also help nationally.”

Heavy weather

And the CDA could use that help nationwide. Outside Zeeland, the CDA threatens to lose seats in every province. In the Senate, the party could be halved according to polls: of the nine current seats, between four and six are expected to remain.

“You see that the party mainly loses to the BoerBurgerBeweging and JA21”, RTL opinion poller Gijs Rademaker analyses. And the CDA mainly has itself to thank for that.

‘Confidence in Hoekstra low’

“Years ago, people knew exactly what the CDA stood for: norms and values, the family, stewardship and farmers; those were the points of the CDA. But large groups of CDA voters now have no idea what that party stands for exactly. “

Which also doesn’t help: confidence in CDA leader Wopke Hoekstra has been low for years, the lowest of all leaders. “And it stays that way, it doesn’t bounce back,” says Rademaker. “CDA members may still think he is a good minister, but not a CDA leader.”

In Amersfoort, party leader Hoekstra is doing his utmost to win back the voters today. But he comes across as unfamiliar and often lets provincial party leader Mirjam Sterk take the lead. He blames the difficult time his party is going through on its participation in the government. “When you take government responsibility with so many difficult issues, it’s never easy.”

Campaign

One of those difficult themes is nitrogen. The CDA cannot agree internally on the course to be followed. In online voting guides, various provincial factions call for opposition to the national nitrogen targets and oppose the compulsory buy-out of farmers.

The twelve CDA party leaders also came forward this week with a remarkable call in The Telegraph. Message in short: ‘The real solution to the nitrogen problem lies in the region. Not in the endless non-discussions in The Hague.’