PvdA and GroenLinks will participate in the upcoming elections with one list and with a joint party programme. Many questions were asked about this on our response platform NUjij. Political reporter Edo van der Goot answered the most important ones.
Why do the parties opt for this middle ground and not for a merger?
“This cooperation is very specific only about the upcoming elections to the House of Representatives and therefore does not apply to the municipalities, the provinces or the European Parliament. They remain two separate parties.”
“In a sense it is an experiment, because you do not know what the outcome will be. The chairman of GroenLinks also said on Monday that you will only know in ten years whether this is a success or not.”
“For the time being, this is a step against the fragmentation in politics. You can easily be in favor of that. The question is whether everyone will remain satisfied if there is a joint program. Can (MP) members agree with that?”
“After all, they are still two different parties, with different starting points. A merger, in which it becomes an irreversible process, therefore seems a step too far for the parties and their members.”
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Some NUjij’ers find SP and PvdA more logical as a combination. Why did GL and PvdA specifically opt for this?
“Several attempts have been made to cooperate with the three left-wing parties (PvdA, GroenLinks and SP), but that remained with one-off attempts. You could say that the SP is a bit more radical on the left, the socialists prefer not to make concessions. The PvdA has always been a broad people’s party, GroenLinks has also moved in that direction in recent years.”
What will the new name be?
“That has not yet been officially announced. For the time being, there is talk of ‘United Left’.”
How does the search for a party leader work?
“The official route is that the party boards set up a list tractor committee and a candidate committee. A name emerges from this. The party members must eventually agree to this.”
“Two names have been going around for some time, even before those committees have done their job: Frans Timmermans and Marjolein Moorman. Both are from the PvdA. GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver will certainly not do it, he announced on Wednesday.”
Do they get speaking time twice during a debate in this collaboration? Or is it one party, one speaking time? The latter is much more honest, is said on NUjij.
“Speaking time depends on how large the group becomes. The larger the group, the more speaking time.”
The main goal seems to be a stronger negotiating position in formation discussions. Is that position really worth the loss of identity for both parties, especially the Labor Party?
“Let me start by saying that this is of course about power. After all, it is politics. The bigger you are, the more power you have. It’s that simple. The parties also say they cooperate for ideological reasons. They are convinced that their main principles are in line with each other.”
“As an example, PvdA and GroenLinks often cite ‘climate justice’ – measures against climate change because they are important for nature (GroenLinks), but also in a fair way, so that the strongest shoulders bear the heaviest burden (PvdA).”
“Of course, some recognition will disappear from both parties. After all, green is not red. At the same time, the PvdA has not really recovered from the huge loss in the parliamentary elections of 2017 (from 38 to 9 seats, the biggest drop ever). The social democrats So we have little to lose.”
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What is the historical perspective for these parties? In other words: which parties preceded them when we talk about mergers, and how did this work out?
“Actually, almost all parties are merger parties. But the last example dates back to 23 years ago. Then the ChristenUnie was formed by the Reformed Political Association (GPV) and the Reformatorische Political Federation (RPF).”
“The PvdA was also founded by three other parties just after the Second World War. The same applies to the CDA in the eighties. That did not happen overnight. In all cases, years of cooperation and preparation preceded it.”
2023-07-19 15:45:00
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