Van Baarle steps down as DENK leader over internal conflict; MP's want him to stay

Stephan van Baarle is stepping down as the party leader of DENK, he said on X. “The actions of the party board have undermined and made my role as party leader impossible, forcing me to take this step.” DENK MPs Ismail el Abassi and Dogukan Ergin expressed support for Van Baarle and demanded that the party board step down.

Insiders told NOS that Van Baarle is clashing heads with the party board over the candidate list for the upcoming election. The dispute is not about Van Baarle’s position, they said. They’ve been at a stalemate for weeks, the sources said, adding that over 700 DENK members have signed a call for a general membership meeting to resolve the matter, but the party board has not heeded them.

DENK MPs El Abassi and Ergin support Van Baarle and called for the party board to resign. “It is unacceptable that chairman [Ejder] Köse has grossly and humiliatingly undermined our political leader and forced him to take this step,” El Abassi wrote on X. “There is only one option: he is the one and only party leader and therefore the board must resign immediately.”

Tunahan Kuzu, a former DENK MP and co-founder of the party, also voiced his support for Van Baarle. “Bullying out someone so committed ot hte party from the very beginning is unacceptable and unbearable,” Kuzu wrote on X, also calling for the board to resign.

Van Baarle has been a DENK parliamentarian for four years, becoming the leader of the faction in the 2023 elections. Before that, he led the DENK faction in Rotterdam.