They have been waiting for a while in the cupboard of the CDA department Deurne: the bags, stickers, flags and posters for next year’s municipal elections. But it may be that the stuff stays in the closet. Because the CDA Deurne has doubts.
Doubts about whether or not to continue with the CDA. The department is still postponing such a drastic decision, but for the time being away from the national party. “The actions of the national CDA are not in line with us,” the councilors said in a statement. “The lowest point is how critical people in their own party are dealt with.”
Councilor Benny Munsters tells how members canceled their membership in recent weeks. How volunteers began to have doubts, discussions about the course of the party and people felt less and less at ease.
“The fact that Pieter Omtzigt was forced to say goodbye to the party was the last straw for many,” says Munsters. “After an accumulation of incidents around the party leader election, failures in the campaign, hassle about sponsorships and everything that happened around the allowance affair.”
More CDA departments are struggling with the course of the party and the elections in March next year. There are many questions. Are the candidate lists completed on time? Can they still count on enough volunteers for the campaign? And with what story do they go on the run in the elections?
With a very local story, most departments tell the NOS.
National tinkering
“The rumblings in The Hague are not doing any good. It is not nice to always have to explain how to proceed,” says the Hoorn CDA member Dick Bennis. “But in Hoorn we are going to focus full energy on our local strength. The C stands for constructive, cooperative and collegial.”
According to Bennis, what helps is that the party is well rooted locally. And has a “large network of active members and volunteers”.
That network is indeed there, says a CDA member in the west of the country, who wishes to remain anonymous. “But what was built up for years has quickly crumbled due to national tinkering.” For him, that started when the CDA in North Brabant teamed up with Forum for Democracy. “In our name is the D for democracy, but as far as I’m concerned it had little to do with that.”
According to him, the party remains too quiet on major themes such as nitrogen and climate. “There is no clear choice for fear of the grassroots.”
Another CDA member in the north of the country fears that choice. “People here have felt abandoned by the party for years. A smaller livestock? Then also a smaller CDA.”
–
