There will be general elections next March, and the dozen-plus-a-few Dutch parties are preparing for them. It’s time for another series of party profiles. We’ll go in order from small to large according to the August 2020 polls.

Today we’ll continue with two polar opposite parties: ultra-orthodox SGP and animal-rights PvdD. It should be noted that farmers, in the traditional stuff-them-with-hormones-and-keep-then-in-mega-stables sense, are rather overrepresented among the SGP electorate, while they are the antithesis of all that the PvdD stands for.

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Today, news broke that was so unexpected that I had to write about it: split-offs from populist FvD, angry-pensionado 50Plus, and animal-rights PvdD consolideated into a new small party. (Source)

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All polls agree that 50Plus will enter parliament after the elections, though they disagree on its exact number of seats: 1, 2, or even 3. In addition, Peil.nl thinks the Pirate Party is going to win one seat, although the other pollsters don’t agree.

In this entry we’ll take a closer look at new parties in parliament, and discover three rules:

1. New parties generally win more than one seat.
2. Pollsters never miss a new party: if a party gets 0 seats in the polls, it gets 0 seats in parliament.
3. The opposite is not true: pollsters frequently give seats to parties who don’t win any.

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The Dutch nine-to-twelve-party system is sometimes hard to understand for foreigners; especially when the small parties come into play. Therefore, just like in 2010, I’m running a mini-series that treats all eleven parties that stand a decent chance of winning seats. We’ll go from smallest to largest.

Today we’ll continue with animal-rights party PvdD.

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Some minor points:

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In the past six weeks or so I haven’t been as active on this blog as I’d planned, but in the end this is a personal side project that I either have time for or don’t. Fortunately the past weeks were also relatively quiet on the political front. The local elections have run their course, and the parties are now gearing up for the general elections.

The campaign will start in two weeks or so, because late April/early May features a few Dutch-only holidays: Queen’s Day on 30 April, Remembrance Day on 4 May, and Liberation Day on 5 May. (The latter two both celebrate our liberation from the nazis in 1945). Besides, there’s a two-week school holiday right now, and many voters are abroad on some beach or so. Little sense in starting up your campaign now.

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Some small fry from the past ten days that might be of interest to political observers:

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The Dutch nine-to-twelve-party system is sometimes hard to understand for foreigners; especially when the small parties come into play. Therefore I’m running a mini-series that treats all eleven parties that stand a decent chance of getting seats in the upcoming elections. We’ll go from largest to smallest.

Today we’ll continue with the PvdD.

continue reading