Fight for political leadership heats up

Those were the days when the elite of the political parties could choose their new leader all by themselves. But darn, that new democracy is completely messing up this perfect system. For most parties, it is now up to the members to choose the person who will lead them to the next elections and, maybe, win a seat or two in Parliament (Tweede Kamer).

Of course, there still are some parties who solemnly follow their great leader. Geert Wilders, the man who dropped the ‘gedoogcoalitie’ (coalition to tolerate) with VVD and CDA like a shell bomb, is the undisputed leader of the PVV (Freedom Party; Partij voor de Vrijheid). The PVV does not have any members, just followers, and is therefore led by the man who has for the past eight years been surrounded by bodyguards.

Undisputed are also the leaders from the SGP (Kees van der Staaij), SP (Emile Roemer) and D66 (Alexander Pechtold). Even the ChristenUnie, led by Arie Slob, did not have any suitable candidate to battle for the leadership. Naturally, nobody dares to fight current Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD). And the party board of the Partij voor de Dieren (Animal Party) has opted for another round with Marianne Thieme as their forewoman.

Another female leader however, Jolande Sap (GroenLinks: Green Left) has to fight of at least one, but probably more competitors. The rules of this party state, that no candidate is allowed to promote him or herself in the fight for the leadership, before 1 June. However, in the lobbies it is whispered that Tofik Dibi wants to challenge her leadership. He himself has kept quiet about his aspirations until 13 May, when he had his coming out. He is indeed challenging Sap’s leadership. The eventual leader will be chosen on 30 June. But the fights for leadership in all these parties are absolutely not interesting compared to the battles that have been going on in the PvdA (Labour Party) and CDA (Christian Democratic Party).

The battle for the PvdA leadership started on 20 February, when Job Cohen quit from politics all together. In a fierce battle with four opponents, it was Diederik Samsom who came out on top. He beat former minister Ronald Plasterk, former secretary of state Nebahat Albayrak and political nobodies Martijn van Dam and Lutz Jacobi. One month and five days later, the PVV pulled the plug out of the gedoogcoalitie and, for a day or so, there was talk of new PvdA-leadership elections. However, all party members united behind their number one Samsom, hoping that he will make the PvdA the new number one.

And then there was the CDA. In the good old days, this party could obtain more than 60 seats in a parliament consisting of 150 seats all together. In the one year, six months and seven days that the gedoogcoalitie from VVD and CDA ruled the Netherlands, the CDA plummeted in the opinion polls from 21 seats to a meager ten seats. The cold feet of Geert Wilders was a pure blessing to this Christian democratic party. The informal CDA leader at that time was Maxime Verhagen, who fearlessly defended the existence of the gedoogcoalitie. But Verhagen counted his blessings and said that he was going to quit politics.

So, the race was on: who could be brave enough to take the CDA out of the swamp? Not Jan Kees de Jager; the popular minister of Finance; he did not want to burn his fingers on a party leadership. No, the ones who are aiming at the highest post within the CDA are Sybrand van Haersma Buma, Henk Bleker, Liesbeth Spies and Madeleine van Toorenburg. These four are all members of Parliament. But also two newbie’s want to give it a shot: Mona Keijzer and Marcel Wintels. Against all odds, it was Keijzer who became the fiercest competitor of Van Haersma Buma. Whether it was her easy to remember name ‘Mona’, her slogan ‘Wees wijzer, kies Keijzer’ (be smart, choose Keijzer) or her female charms, will be a mystery forever.

On 1 July, all leaders will be known and the political parties can step up their activities to charm the voters in the upcoming elections on Wednesday 12 September. So all you readers out there who are eligible to vote, it is time to make up your mind. Will you choose the far left (SP, GroenLinks, Partij voor de Dieren), left (PvdA, D66, ChristenUnie), middle (CDA), right (VVD, SGP) or far right (PVV). But are you fed up with the ‘old’ parties and are you looking for new, fresh blood? New parties are lurking just around the corner to conquer the Tweede Kamer. Parties such as the Onafhankelijke Burgerpartij (Independent Citizens party), 50Plus (Senior Citizens party), Moed.nl (Courage) and Piratenpartij (Pirates party). The coming months the good old culture will bring out the best in the Dutch nature: ‘Bring on the balloons! Here with the T-shirts! We may not vote for you, but we sure want your goodies!’

Verschenen in: The Holland Times, June edition 2012.