PvdA and GroenLinks ask members for support for joint election candidacy

Members of the PvdA and GroenLinks will be able to announce from Monday whether the two parties should enter the parliamentary elections together with a joint election program and a joint list of candidates. The party leaders of the PvdA and GroenLinks themselves already believe that they should "join forces." They are now asking members for their support, said PvdA leader Attje Kuiken.

The party stressed that the membership referendum is not about a merger: for now, PvdA and GroenLinks will remain their own parties. At a press conference in a room at The Hague's Café Dudok, PvdA chairwoman Esther-Mirjam Sent said, "It's time for elections where we act together." Although the fall of the Cabinet came suddenly and quickly, the plans had been ready for months, according to GroenLinks party chairwoman Katinka Eikelenboom.

The left-wing parties want a left-wing Cabinet with a left-wing prime minister. The PvdA and GroenLinks argue that a greener and more social election is needed. Both Kuiken and GroenLinks chairman Jesse Klaver do not have a good word to say about the actions of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose Cabinet was toppled last Friday over disagreements on migration.

For instance, PvdA leader Attje Kuiken described outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte as "unreliable" and "unapproachable." That is why she does not want to form a Cabinet with him. Kuiken did not yet want to say whether this also applies to cooperation with his VVD party. the PvdA chairwoman said she wants to focus first on the membership referendum on cooperation between the PvdA and GroenLinks.

However, GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver did not want to comment on cooperation with Rutte when asked. The members of both parties will vote starting Monday on a joint list and program for the parliamentary elections to be held in the fall.

Although there is also unrest among members about continued cooperation and it is barely getting off the ground in the provinces, the parties see that members want to move forward together.

Both parties already form a 14-member parliamentary group in the recently established new Senate, with Paul Rosenmöller (GroenLinks) as group leader. GroenLinks-PvdA is the largest parliamentary group in the Senate after the BBB (16 seats).