Left-wing parties planning an alliance in next cabinet

Left-wing opposition parties GroenLinks and PvdA plan to form an alliance after the parliamentary elections in March next year. They will either be together in a cabinet, or together in the opposition, and they also want the third left-wing opposition party SP to join in, NOS reports.

On Sunday, PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher said that his party won't enter a cabinet without left-wing allies. And according to him, that means not doing it without GroenLinks and/or SP. "That's the way it is. We have learned our lessons, they were quite expensive lessons," he said, referring to the Rutte II cabinet of VVD and PvdA. That led to the PvdA's biggest election defeat ever.

When NOS asked GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver about this, he agreed with Asscher's statements. "I actually have exactly the same announcement as Lodewijk Asscher has made: we only want to participate in a cabinet with other left-wing parties, at least the PvdA. Preferably participate together. And if that does not work, you together don't participate."

Klaver continued: "We want a left-wing engine block and the PvdA and GroenLinks are then a very logical combination. The SP shows that they would like to join the next cabinet, so I can also imagine that the SP will join in. And if the D66 really wants to turn left, I am also happy with D66. But in any case PvdA and GroenLinks."

SP leader Lilian Marijnissen told the broadcaster that she would find it "mighty beautiful" if the left-wing parties can succeed in forming an alliance and take the lead in the formation of the next cabinet. "Those parties are closest to us ideologically," she said, adding that other parties can join too as far as she is concerned.

By teaming up, the left-wing parties hope to have more of an influence on policy than they do on their own. In the polls, the PvdA and GroenLinks currently together have 30 seats, so their alliance could have a major influence on the cabinet formation next year.