It leaked on Thursday that PvdA and GroenLinks are prepared to go very far to enable a new cabinet. Because VVD and CDA do not feel like forming a government with two left-wing parties, PvdA and GroenLinks would think about close cooperation.
Today the party leaders announced to act as one group in the formation negotiations. But prominent members fear that the parties will even want to form a single faction in the House of Representatives.
‘Merging for power makes blind’
Prominent PvdA members are stirring on social media. “Merging for power makes blind to the powerless,” says former party chairman of the PvdA Hans Spekman. He is vehemently against a merger.
Prominent PvdA member Adri Duivesteijn writes on Twitter: “VVD and CDA demand block formation of the House of Representatives groups. The faction seems to go along with it. In short: the end of the PvdA has started. Away with history, tradition and social democracy.”
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Hundreds of members express dissatisfaction
PvdA members also do not have a good word for it that nothing has yet been discussed with the members. “The elections are more than five months ago. It is high time to invite PvdA members to discuss how we should proceed,” said senator Esther-Mirjam Sent.
Pieter Paul Slikker, candidate chairman of the PvdA, says that hundreds of members have now expressed their dissatisfaction with the right-wing merger of the PvdA and GroenLinks faction via the app and social media.
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Criticize
There is also criticism from GroenLinks. Alexander de Roo, co-founder of the party, is against. GroenLinks was founded in 1990 after a merger of four small left-wing parties: the PPR, the PSP, the CPN and the EVP.
“I am not in favor of a merger. They are now using tactical tricks, I do not know where that leads,” De Roo told RTL Nieuws. “Jesse Klaver wanted too little last time and too much this time.”
A merger of parties has enormous consequences. “You have been elected on various programs and GroenLinks goes further than the PvdA on climate and nature. You must remain recognizable for your voters. The PvdA does not have green voters, but red ones.”
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‘Chances close to zero’
The two left-wing parties have been saying for months that they will not rule without each other. In the past, countless attempts have been made to get a left-wing partnership off the ground, but it never came to a merger.
According to political commentator Frits Wester, the chance of a merger between the two left-wing parties is now as good as zero. “A merger is a process that takes years. Both parties have different supporters and they are certainly not excited. They are completely different worlds. You don’t just bring them together.”
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