How a Provincial Council Member’s Vote Upsets Senate Seat Allocation in the Netherlands

The appointment of the Senate is done in a different way in the Netherlands than here. The vote is in the hands of the members of the provincial parliaments. In practice, what the Senate will look like is already determined after the elections of those provincial councils.

However, Debora Fernald caused a surprise this time. Since the elections two months ago, she has been sitting in the Provincial Council of South Holland, the province of Rotterdam and The Hague. In her own words, however, she was ignored within the GroenLinks faction. She already complained about this in a sensational column in the daily newspaper Metro. It didn’t really get along with the other members of her group either: she wanted to focus on themes such as inclusiveness, but reportedly showed less interest in specific provincial matters.

She would also have received hardly any information about the operation, and would have had to find her way in the provincial council herself.

However, she did receive help from the members of the Volt party, a party that, according to her, is very close to GroenLinks in terms of views. “Someone from Volt showed me around a bit,” she says now. In protest, she therefore opted for someone from Volt in the formal election of the members of the Senate. ‘If you help me – because my party has no time – then I will give that vote to you,’ is her motivation.

Decisive

But Fernald said he was unaware of the impact of that decision. Her one vote turns out to be decisive for a seat that now goes to Volt, which would otherwise have been won by GroenLinks. She tells the public broadcaster NOS that she would prefer to review her choice. “But you can’t, I think.” She also expresses her regret to the party: ‘I have seen people who have been badly affected by this. It hurts me too. I hope that GroenLinks can also forgive me somewhere’.

However, that is not the case: because of her voting behavior, Sinan Özkaya, the party chairman of GroenLinks in the Provincial Council of South Holland, has decided to expel her from the group. According to Özkaya, Fernald was guided both individually and in groups after she joined the Provincial Council. ‘As party members, we have done everything to welcome her.’ Fernald now continues as an independent.

‘devastated’

Incidentally, Fernald is not the only member of Parliament who voted for a different party. This often happens when a certain party does not have enough votes to win a full seat. A particular candidate is often chosen in consultation with a coalition partner. However, that was not the case with GroenLinks and Volt. Volt had tried to get an extra vote through consultation, but without result.

Fernald’s vote therefore came as ‘a happy surprise’ for Volt chairman Rob Keijsers. According to him, members of his faction helped newcomer Fernald without any ulterior motive. “She was a bit distraught through the building, so she got help,” he told NOS. “There was certainly no hint to vote for us.”

GroenLinks chairman Jesse Klaver was of course in for a less pleasant surprise: ‘This is very disappointing’, he summarized the situation.