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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.
For that reason, the two parties occasionally snipe at one another. Since there are approximately zero voters that hesitate between SGP and PvdD their sniping only serves to celebrate the righteousness of their cause in the eyes of their own electorate. Both are witness parties in the end, and their voters expect something like this.
Nothing much has changed in the SGP — but, then again, nothing much is supposed to change in the SGP. It’s still the oldest party in Parliament (founded 102 years ago), it still feels the Bible, and then especially its orthodox calvinist interpretation, should be leading in politics, it still doesn’t like TV, or women in politics (hey! read the Bible!), its website is still closed on Sundays, and it’s still firmly to the right both in an economic and in a cultural sense. Its voters come from a quite different subsection of Dutch society than PVV or FvD voters, though.
For more information re-read the 2010 and 2012 profiles I wrote.
The SGP still sees Islamisation as a serious problem, and therefore aligns with the extreme right. In the past it was virulently anti-catholic, but it appears the switch to anti-islam has gone smoothly and without upsetting its core constituency. Then again, the old generation for whom catholics were the Enemy is dying out, and compared to muslims catholics are almost like us (Us as in orthodox calvinists). At least they revere the same God.
The SGP tends to support whatever government is in power — after all, that government being in power is clearly God’s will. It’s much happier with a right-wing than with a left-wing government, though. Still, it supported the VVD+PvdA coalition in the previous parliamentary session as part of the constructive opposition (see section 2). This made the SGP more palatable to the other parties, and that’s never bad in coalition-mad Dutch politics.
On the negative side, the relations between SGP and fellow-calvinist CU are deteriorating. We will discuss this in the CU entry.
It’s currently at 4 seats in the polls, but this could be a function of its very loyal and disciplined voters, who always go to the polls no matter what. If voters of all the other parties turn out less, the number of SGP seats rises, if they turn out more, the number falls. Thus I see the four seats more as an indication that the voters of other parties don’t turn out to political polls yet, or say 'Dunno'. It is likely the SGP will eventually end up at 3 seats. Then again, I said the same last time around, when the polls put the SGP at 3 seats — and it won that third seat, even though turnout was historically high.
Maybe the SGP has found a way after all to appeal to very conservative CDA and CU voters.
In any case, the SGP is very unlikely to raise beyond 4 seats, and thus its power will be limited. If a big right-wing coalition were to be formed, and if it lacked one to three seats for a majority, then the SGP would enter the halls of power. Without that, though, it will remain what it is today — and having some influence because of your constructive cooperation is not a bad position to be in.
Animal-rights party PvdD isn’t changing a lot, either. It has found its place in the Dutch political system. It increasingly takes on the role of small witness green party that used to be GL’s place in the spectrum.
The fall of the PvdA has made many left-wing voters take another good look at GL, and it’s becoming a mass party. Therefore, strict green voters who are more interested in their principles than in power are looking for a new political home. The PvdD provides that.
For more information re-read the 2010 and 2012 profiles I wrote.
The one thing that went wrong for the PvdD during this parliamentary session was the defection of MP Van Kooten, whose weird adventures I detailed here and here.
Party leader Thieme, who was accused of dictatorial behaviour by Van Kooten, resigned from parliament and her post as leader in 2019. Her place has been taken by MP Ouwehand, who entered parliament together with Thieme in 2006. It is unlikely that this will change anything.
A second minor blemish is a 2019 row around party chairman Wolwinkel, who took some decisions on his own. Blame is hard to assign here, and it’s possible that Wolwinkel ran afoul of Thieme’s strict hand in keeping the party together. Officially Wolwinkel was fired after Thieme left parliament, but usually these affairs have a long history.
The party was harmed slightly by these hiccups. Before the Wolwinkel affair it was at 6 or 7 seats in the polls, but now it has returned to the 5 seats it also won in 2017. But if the party keeps a clean nose from now on, it might find its way back to that sixth or even seventh seat.
<— Party profiles — DENK | Party profiles — CU —>
This is the political blog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer, in Amsterdam. It’s a hobby blog where he follows Dutch politics for the benefit of those twelve foreigners that are interested in such matters, as well as his Dutch readers.
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