Some prominent PvdA members critical of accelerated merger with GroenLinks

Some prominent PvdA members are critical of plans to accelerate the labor party’s merger with GroenLinks-PvdA. In a letter to their party leadership, they accuse the leadership of “improper governance” and jeopardizing the 2026 municipal elections, the Telegraaf reports.

The signatories of the letter include four PvdA mayors and former mayors - Vaals mayor Harry Leunessen, Westland mayor Bouke Arends, and former mayors Jan Boelhouwer and Harry Keereweer. According to the newspaper, they are members of Rood Vooruit, an initiative in the PvdA mainly characterized by opposing the merger with GroenLinks.

According to the signatories, critics of the merger are not given “sufficient space” within the party to share their views. They also believe that more PvdA members are critical of the merger than the board is saying, citing a survey by PvdA think tank Het Rode Nest showing that 50 percent of its 2,000 members have doubts about the merger with GroenLinks.

The letter writers accuse the PvdA leadership of opting for “form over substance” and jeopardizing the 2026 municipal election by focusing on left-wing, instead of center voters, according to the newspaper.

A spokesperson for the party board told the Telegraaf that members have had, and still will have, ample opportunity to express their opinions. “In recent years, the members of the PvdA have spoken out in favor of more cooperation through numerous referendums and motions,” the spokesperson said. “In the run-up to the congress, discussions are being organized throughout the country in which members can discuss this proposal with the party board and with each other.”

At the party congress on June 21, members of the PvdA and GroenLinks will vote in a referendum on whether to continue the current cooperation between the two parties. If they vote in favor, the parties will “merge into a new party.”

Former PvdA leader Ad Melkert, also a member of Rood Vooruit, told the Telegraaf that the party leadership only thinks that the majority of members support the merger because “people don’t dare to express themselves or remain reserved in doing so.”

Melkert clashed with GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans in a debate in De Balie in Amsterdam last month. During that debate, Timmermans told Melkert: “You represent maybe 10 percent of the members.”