GroenLinks

GroenLinks
Party leader	Jesse Klaver
Party leader	Marjolein Meijer
Group Chairman, Second Chamber	Jesse Klaver
Chairman of the First Chamber	Paul Rosenmöller
EP Head of Delegation	Bas Eickhout
founding	March 1, 1989
Headquarters	Utrecht
Alignment	Green policy of left-wing liberalism
Colours)	green
Sit in the First Chamber	8/75
Sit in the second chamber	14/150
Seats in the European Parliament	3/29
Number of members	28,829
International connections	Global Greens
European party	EGP
EP Group	Greens / EFA
http://www.groenlinks.nl/

GroenLinks ( GL ; German GrünLinks ) is a green party in the Netherlands . It was officially formed in 1990 through a merger of four parties, the Communist Partij van Nederland (CPN) from 1909/1919, the Pacifist Socialist Partij (PSP) from 1957, the Politieke Partij Raduellen (PPR) from 1968 and the Evangelical People's Party (EPP ) from 1981.

GroenLinks has been represented in the Second Chamber since the party was founded, but has never been involved in a government. At the European level, the party belongs to the European Green Party .

history

As early as 1984, three parties had presented a joint electoral list in the European elections in order to counter their decline in elections. In 1989 in the parliamentary elections (Second Chamber) the EPP was added as fourth. At that time the electoral alliance won six seats out of 150. The four parties were:

• The former Stalinist Communist Partij van Nederland (CPN), founded as SDP in 1909, opened up to a certain extent in the 1980s and accepted feminism as an ideology on an equal footing with communism. During that decade it continuously lost members and in 1986 its last parliamentary mandate.
• The Pacifist Socialist Partij (PSP) was founded in 1957 as a reservoir for disappointed communists and social democrats, left Christians and anarchists who, for example, rejected NATO and wanted to go a third way . In the 1986 elections, the PSP dropped from three to one seat.
• Left groups from the Katholieke Volkspartij (KVP) formed the Politieke Partij Raduellen (PPR) in 1968 . In 1981 it aligned itself increasingly left and green and was able to defend its two seats in the 1986 elections.
• The Evangelical People's Party (EPP) was founded in 1981 by left-wing Christian Democrats (CDA). It stood for pacifism, social justice and progressiveness (for example in relation to euthanasia and homosexuality). In its short history, she had only won a single seat in the Second Chamber in 1982.

After GroenLinks only achieved 4 seats and 2.3% of the vote in the 2012 parliamentary elections - the worst result to date - the party, under the leadership of Jesse Klaver, achieved that in 2017 with 14 seats and 8.9% of the vote best result so far.

Since its inception, the party has not been involved in any government coalition at the national level. In the 2010 elections she was expressly interested in participating in the government, but the desired center-left coalition did not materialize. Currently it is only involved in the regional executive in the provinces of Utrecht and Groningen .

The parliamentary group chairman was Femke Halsema from 2002 to 2010 , under whose leadership GroenLinks, which at times had more than 25,000 members, seemed to give itself a more left-wing liberal profile. At the European level, however, the party is still an integral part of the green alliances (among other things, GL and the De Groenen party, which also continues to exist, belong to the EGP alliance founded in 2004 ). In the European Parliament it has since 2014, two representatives.

After Halsema's withdrawal from the Second Chamber, Jolande Sap took over the chairmanship at the end of 2010 and led the party as the top candidate in the early elections in 2012 , where GroenLinks suffered heavy losses and only received four seats; that was the smallest green left parliamentary group in the Second Chamber since the party's existence. Less than four weeks after the election defeat, the party leadership forced Jolande Sap to resign. Shortly afterwards, the entire board resigned to enable a new start in terms of personnel.

The leading role in the party has been held by parliamentary group leader Bram van Ojik since October 2012, who resigned on May 12, 2015. The succession by the left-wing liberal, former Christian trade unionist Jesse Klaver also meant a generation change. Klaver was involved in the coalition talks after a considerable election success in 2017. However, GroenLinks' entry into government failed due to the issues of integration and climate.

GroenLinks' youth organization is called DWARS .

Political program

The party combines green and leftist goals. This includes:

• Preservation of the earth and ecosystems as well as animal welfare
• Equitable distribution of natural resources between all citizens of the world and all generations
• Fair distribution of income
• Opportunities for work, care, education and recreation for everyone
• Plural society in which anyone can participate

Election results

• 1989: 4.1% - 6 seats
• 1994: 3.4% - 5 seats
• 1998: 7.3% - 11 seats
• 2002: 7.0% - 10 seats
• 2003: 5.1% - 8 seats
• 2006 : 4.6% - 7 seats
• 2010 : 6.7% - 10 seats
• 2012 : 2.3% - 4 seats
• 2017 : 9.1% - 14 seats

Well-known politicians

• Britta Boehler
• Femke Halsema
• Farah Karimi
• Paul Rosenmöller
• Jolande Sap
• Judith Sargentini

literature

• Jasper Blom: Greener than the sum of its parts? Origin and development of the GroenLinks party . In: Carla van Baalen et al. a .: A fragmented landscape. Contributions to the past and present of Dutch political parties. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2018, pp. 85-105.
• Paul Lucardie, Gerrit Voerman (Ed.): Van de straat naar de sta? GroenLinks 1990-2010 . Boom, Amsterdam 2010, ISBN 978-94-6105-360-2

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ GroenLinks ledentallen per jaar (1990–). In: Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse Politieke Partijen. University of Groningen , February 12, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 (Dutch). 
2. ↑ nu.nl: Uitslag Verkiezing 2012
3. ↑ Voorzitter GroenLinks en rest bestuur stappen op na vertrek Sap . volkskrant.nl, October 6, 2012 (Dutch)