GroenLinks and PvdA members vote in favor of merger into new party

A majority of the members of GroenLinks-PvdA have voted in favor of a proposal to merge into a new party next year, the party leaders announced on Thursday. A total of 89 percent of GroenLinks members voted in favor, which is just one percent more than the number of PvdA members who voted for the proposal.

The question of whether the two left-wing parties should join together in the Parliamentary elections on October 29 was also confirmed with a significant majority. The results for this were even more clear: more than 90 percent of the members of both parties were in agreement regarding this proposal.

GroenLinks and PvdA have been working intensively together for several years now. They have had a joint party in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, since June 2023. This was also the year that they decided to merge in the elections for the Tweede Kamer, which is the lower house of Dutch parliament. Under the guidance of Frans Timmermans, Groenlinks-PvdA became the second-largest government party with 25 seats, which is eight more than they got in 2021.

The left-wing parties must raise the bar even higher, Timmermans believes. "We can become the largest party in the country on October 29." He is convinced "that the majority of Dutch people have a warm, socially beating heart." He wants to convince people by offering perspective. "Fear for the future must become hope for the future."

Timmermans is also a candidate for the party leadership on this occasion, but other candidates can challenge him. They have until Friday to do so. The members will vote next week on who should head the electoral list this fall. The results will be announced on June 20, one day before the party congress in Nieuwegein.

The collaboration has always received broad support from both parties in previous member consultations. There was more resistance against a merger, especially from a group of prominent figures within the PvdA led by former party leader Ad Melkert. They fear that the party’s social democratic values ​​will be snowed under. There is also a movement within GroenLinks that warns of the prospect of ideological erosion after the merger.

There is support for the merger from the old guard at the PvdA, for example from former minister Jan Pronk, who showed up at the announcement of the results of the member consultations. He is in favor of the left-wing merger, as a response to the rise of "undemocratic right." Pronk called on the group around Melkert to "step aside" and make room for a new generation.