GroenLinks

Before 1989: predecessors GroenLinks was founded in 1989 as a merger of four parties that were to the left of the Labour Party (PvdA), a social democratic party which has traditionally been the largest centre-left party in the Netherlands. The founding parties were the (formerly-communist) Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), which originated in the peace movement, the green-influenced Political Party of Radicals (PPR), originally a progressive Christian party, and the progressive Christian Evangelical People's Party. These four parties were frequently classified as "small left"; to indicate their marginal existence. In the 1972 general election, these parties won sixteen seats (out of 150); in the 1977 general election, they only won six. From that moment on, members and voters began to argue for close cooperation. From the 1980s onwards, the four parties started to cooperate in municipal and provincial elections. As fewer seats are available in these representations, a higher percentage of votes is required to gain a seat. In the 1984 European election, the PPR, CPN and PSP formed the Green Progressive Accord that entered as one into the European elections. They gained one seat, which rotated between the PSP and PPR. Party-members of the four parties also encountered each other in grassroots extraparliamentary protest against nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. More than 80% of the members of the PSP, CPN and PPR attended at least one of the two mass protests against the placement of nuclear weapons, which took place in 1981 and 1983. The Evangelical People's Party was a relatively new party, founded in 1981, as a splinter group from the Christian Democratic Appeal, the largest party of the Dutch centre-right. During its period in parliament, 1982–1986, it had trouble positioning itself between the small left parties (PSP, PPR and CPN), the PvdA and the CDA. In 1990, some opposition formed against the moderate, green course of GroenLinks. Several former PSP members united in the "Left Forum" in 1992 – they would leave the party to join former PSP-leader Van der Spek to found the PSP'92. Similarly, former members of the CPN joined the League of Communists in the Netherlands to found the New Communist Party in the same year. In 1991, the congresses of the four founding parties (PSP, PPR, CPN and EVP) decided to officially abolish their parties. In 1992, party leader Ria Beckers left the House of Representatives because she wanted more private time. Peter Lankhorst replaced her as chair ad interim, but he announced that he would not take part in the internal elections. 1994–2002: opposition during the purple cabinets Before the general election of 1994, GroenLinks organised an internal election on the party's political leadership. Two duos entered: Ina Brouwer (former CPN) combined with Mohammed Rabbae (independent), while Paul Rosenmöller (independent) formed a combination with Leoni Sipkes (former PSP); there were also five individual candidates, including Wim de Boer (former chair of the PPR and member of the Senate), Herman Meijer (former CPN, future chair of the party) and Ineke van Gent (former PSP and future MP). Rosenmöller set out a new strategy: GroenLinks should offer alternatives instead of only rejecting the proposals made by the government. In the 1998 general election, GroenLinks more than doubled its seats to eleven. The charisma of "unofficial leader" Rosenmöller played an important role in this. In February 2001, Roel van Duijn and a few former members of The Greens joined GroenLinks. Later, she apologised on public television and claimed she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. In the same year, the parliamentary party supported the invasion of Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of September 11. This invasion led to great upheaval within the party. Several former PSP members within the House of Representatives parliamentary party began to openly speak out their doubts about the intervention. Under pressure of internal opposition, led by former PSP members and the party's youth organisation DWARS, the parliamentary party changed its position: the attacks should be cancelled. Before and after the elections serious threats were made against Rosenmöller, his wife and his children. These events caused considerable stress for Rosenmöller. GroenLinks lost one seat in the election, although it had gained more votes than in the 1998 elections. Before the 2003 general election Rosenmöller left parliament, citing the ongoing threats against his life and those of his family as the main reason. He was replaced as chair of the parliamentary party and top candidate by Femke Halsema. She was unable to keep ten seats and lost two. When she returned to parliament, Halsema started a discussion about the principles of her party. She emphasised individual freedom, tolerance, self-realisation and emancipation. In one interview she called her party "the last liberal party of the Netherlands". This led to considerable attention of media and other observers, which speculated about an ideological change. During the congress of February 2007 the party board was ordered to organise a party-wide discussion about the party's principles. During the European Elections congress of 2004, the candidacy committee proposed that the chair of the GroenLinks delegation, Joost Lagendijk, should become the party's lead candidate in those elections. A group of members, led by Senator Leo Platvoet submitted a motion "We want to choose". They wanted a serious choice for such an important office. The party's board announced a new electoral procedure. During the congress Kathalijne Buitenweg, an MEP and candidate, announced wish to be considered for the position of top candidate. She narrowly won the elections from Lagendijk. This came as a great surprise to all. Especially for Buitenweg who had not written an acceptance speech and read out Lagendijk's. In November 2005, the party board asked Senator Sam Pormes to give up his seat. Continuing rumours about his involvement with guerrilla-training in Yemen in the 1970s and the 1977 train hijacking by Moluccan youth and allegations of welfare fraud were harmful for the party, or at least so the party board claimed. When Pormes refused to step down, the party board threatened to expel him. Pormes fought this decision. The party council of March 2006 sided with Pormes. Party chair Herman Meijer felt forced to resign. He was succeeded by Henk Nijhof who was chosen by the party council in May 2006. In November 2006 Pormes left the Senate, he was replaced by Goos Minderman. In the 2006 Dutch municipal election, the party stayed relatively stable, losing only a few seats. After the elections GroenLinks took part in 75 local executives, including Amsterdam where MP Marijke Vos became an alderwoman. He was replaced by Jolande Sap. In 2008, MEPs Joost Lagendijk and Kathalijne Buitenweg announced that they would not seek a new term in the European Parliament. The party had to elect a new lead candidate for the 2009 European elections. There were five candidates for this position: Amsterdam city councillor Judith Sargentini, former MEP Alexander de Roo, senator Tineke Strik, environmental researcher Bas Eickhout and Niels van den Berge assistant of MEP Buitenweg. In an internal referendum Sargentini was elected. The party congress put Eickhout on a second position on the list. On 18 April 2010, the party congress composed the list of candidates for the 2010 general election. Two sitting MPs Ineke van Gent and Femke Halsema were granted dispensation to stand for a fourth term. Halsema was re-elected as party leader. Van Gent was put as fifth on the party list. All of the first five candidates were sitting MPs and four were women. Their other high newcomers were former Greenpeace director Liesbeth van Tongeren and chairman of CNV youth Jesse Klaver. The party won 10 seats in the election and participated in the formation talks of a Green/Purple government. Halsema resigned as party leader when these talks failed and was succeeded by Jolande Sap. In the 2012 general election, GroenLinks lost six seats and was left with four out of 150 seats. Following the disappointing result, Sap was forced to resign as party leader and was succeeded by Bram van Ojik, who in turn handed his position to Jesse Klaver in 2015. Under Klaver's leadership, GroenLinks gradually rose in polls before climbing to an all-time high of 14 seats in the 2017 general election. The party entered coalition talks with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the Christian Democratic Appeal and Democrats 66, but the talks failed after Klaver demanded more refugees to be accepted. GroenLinks lost the 2021 general election, and combined with the Labour Party during the subsequent government formation. There have been discussions about a merger with that party; they participated in the 2023 Dutch Senate election as one. GroenLinks and the Labour Party announced in 2023 that they would also participate as one, GroenLinks–PvdA, in the general election of 2023, as members of both parties voted in favour of an alliance. With Frans Timmermans as lead candidate, GroenLinks–PvdA eventually won 25 seats in the elections, gaining eight seats and becoming the largest opposition party to the Schoof cabinet. On 12 June 2025, members of GroenLinks voted in favour of another joint list for the general election of 2025, as well as a merger with the Labour Party into a new party, Progressive Netherlands, in 2026. ==Ideology and issues==

Ideology The party combines green and left-wing ideals. The party places itself in the freedom-loving tradition of the left. Its principles include: • The protection of the Earth, ecosystems and a respectful treatment of animals. • A fair distribution of natural resources between all citizens of the world and all generations. • A just distribution of income and fair chance for everyone to work, care, education and recreation. • A pluralist society where everyone can participate in freedom. The party combines openness with a sense of community. • Strengthening the international rule of law, in order to ensure peace and respect for human rights. The party's principles reflect the ideological convergence between the four founding parties which came from different ideological traditions: the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party, from a progressive Christian tradition; and the Pacifist Socialist Party and the Communist Party of the Netherlands from the socialist and communist traditions. Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, the parties had come to embrace environmentalism and feminism; they all favoured democratisation of society and had opposed the creation of new nuclear plants and the placement of new nuclear weapons in the Netherlands. although Halsema herself claims that she does not want to force an ideological change. Following Isaiah Berlin, Halsema distinguishes between positive and negative freedom. According to Halsema, negative freedom is the freedom of citizens from government influence; she applies this concept especially to the multicultural society and the rechtsstaat, where the government should protect the rights of citizens and not limit them. Positive freedom is the emancipation of citizens from poverty and discrimination. Halsema wants to apply this concept to welfare state and the environment where government should take more action. According to Halsema, GroenLinks is an undogmatic party. GroenLinks considers itself a "social reform party", which aims to reform the government finances and increase the position of "outsiders" on the labour market, such as migrant youth, single parents, workers with short term-contracts and people with disabilities. It disagrees with the parties on the right which, in the eyes of GroenLinks, were only oriented towards cutting costs and did not offer the worst-off a chance for work, emancipation and participation. But, unlike the other opposition parties of the left, the party does not want to defend the current welfare state – which the party calls "powerless", because it merely offers the worst-off a benefit rather than prospects for work. The unemployment benefit should be increased and limited to one year. In this period, people would have to look for a job or education. If at the end of the year one should not succeed in finding a job, the government will offer one a job for the minimum wage. In order to create more employment, they want to implement the green tax shift which will lower taxes on lower paid labour. This would be compensated by higher taxes on pollution. In order to increase prospects for the underprivileged, it wants to invest in education, especially the vmbo (middle-level vocational education). In order to ensure that migrants have a better chance for jobs, it wants to deal firmly with discrimination, especially on the labour market. The party wants to decrease income differences by making child benefits. ==Election results==

House of Representatives Senate European Parliament Provincial == Representation ==

Members of the House of Representatives Members of the Senate Members of the European Parliament ==Electorate==

According to a survey done in 2006 more women vote for GroenLinks than men by a margin of 20%. The party also disproportionately appeals to gay voters. The party also polls well among migrant voters, especially those from Turkey and Morocco, where its support is twice as high as in the general population. GroenLinks voters have an eccentric position in their preferences for particular policies. Between 1989 and 2003 they were the most leftwing voters in the Netherlands, often a little more to the left than voters of the SP. These voters are in favor of the redistribution of wealth, free choice for euthanasia, opening the borders for asylum seekers, the multicultural society and are firmly against building new nuclear plants. ==Style and campaign==

The logo of GroenLinks is the name of the party with the word "Green" written in red and the word "Left" written in green since 1994. Additional colours used in the logo are white, yellow and blue. An earlier logo, used between 1989 and 1994, and which can be seen on the poster above showed a variation of a peace sign projected on a green triangle on which "PPR PSP CPN EVP" was written and next to it GroenLinks in green and pink. From 2007 onwards, GroenLinks has adopted the idea of a "permanent campaign", which implies that campaign activities are held even when there is no immediate connection to an election. Permanent campaign activities are intended to create and maintain a base level of sympathy and knowledge about the party platform. ==Organisation==

Name and logo The name "GroenLinks" (until 1992 "Groen Links" with a space between Groen and Links) is a compromise between the PPR and the CPN and the PSP. The PPR wanted the word "Green" in the name of the party, the PSP and the CPN the word "Left". It also emphasises the core ideals of the party, environmental sustainability and social justice. For the months that the congress does not convene, a party council takes over its role. It consists out of 80 representatives of all the 250 municipal branches. The party board and the nationally elected representatives of the party are responsible to the party council. It has the right to fill vacancies in the board, make changes to the party constitution and takes care of the party's finances. There are several independent organisations which are linked to GroenLinks: • DWARS, the independent youth organisation of GroenLinks • De Linker Wang ("The Left Cheek"), platform for Religion and Politics, which is a progressive Christian platform, which was formed by former members of the Evangelical People's Party. • Scientific Bureau GroenLinks, the independent political think tank which publishes "De Helling" (Dutch for "the Slope"). • PinkLeft, an LGBT organisation for GroenLinks members. GroenLinks is also active on the European and the global stage. It is a founding member of the European Green Party and the Global Greens. Its MEPs sit in The Greens–European Free Alliance group. GroenLinks cooperates with seven other Dutch parties in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, an institute which supports democratic development in developing countries. Relationships with other parties GroenLinks was founded as a mid-sized party to the left of the Labour Party (PvdA). In the 1994 elections, the Socialist Party (SP) also entered parliament. GroenLinks now takes a central position in the Dutch left between the socialist SP, which is more to the left, and the social-democratic PvdA, which is more to the centre. This position is exemplified by the call of Femke Halsema to form a left-wing coalition after the 2006 elections, knowing that such a coalition is only possible with GroenLinks. The electoral alliance between SP and GL in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 elections, and between GroenLinks and PvdA in the 2004 European elections are examples of this position. In the 2007 First Chamber election, it had an electoral alliance with the Party for the Animals. More and more, however, GroenLinks is seen as the most culturally progressive of the three parties. Since 2023 GroenLinks has significantly intensified cooperation with PvdA, generally entering elections with a shared electoral list, including in European Parliament elections after which elected politicians joined separate groups. Both parties are internally discussing a possible complete merger. GroenLinks does not run an independent list for the water board elections. Instead, like D66 and Volt Netherlands, it recommends that its voters support Water Natuurlijk, an independent, green-oriented political party focused solely on water board elections. ==See also==