Early years (1946–1965) , co-founder, party leader (1946–1958) and Prime Minister (1948–1958) During the
German occupation of the Netherlands in
World War II, a group of prominent Dutchmen of all democratic political ideologies were interned as hostages in
Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel by the German occupation authorities. They came to the consensus that the pre-war fragmentation of Dutch political life, known as "
Pillarisation", should be overcome after the war in a so-called
Breakthrough. These people formed the
Dutch People's Movement (NVB) immediately after the war ended in 1945. The new movement promoted the foundation of the Labour Party on 9 February 1946 through a merger of three pre-war parties, namely the
Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), the
social liberal Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) and the progressive
Protestant Christian Democratic Union (CDU). They were joined by individuals from
Catholic resistance group Christofoor, as well as some of the more progressive members of the Protestant
Christian Historical Union (CHU). The founding convention was chaired by NVB member
Willem Banning. Despite its ambitions to force a breakthrough, the electorate returned to their pillars. Led by
Willem Drees in the
1946 general election, it won 29 seats, two less than its predecessors had won in
1937. During the
1946 cabinet formation, the
first Beel cabinet was formed with the
Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the PvdA (
Roman/Red). In 1948, some of the left-liberal members, led by former VDB leader
Pieter Oud, left the PvdA after concluding it had become too socialist for their liking. Together with the
Freedom Party, they formed the
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), a
conservative liberal party. Between 1948 and 1958, the PvdA led centre-left
coalition governments with the KVP, and combinations of VVD, ARP and CHU, with the PvdA's
Willem Drees as prime minister. The KVP and the PvdA together had a large majority in parliament. Under his leadership the Netherlands recovered from the war and began to build its
welfare state, and
Indonesia became
independent. After the cabinet crisis of 1958, the PvdA was replaced by the VVD. The PvdA was in opposition until 1965. The electoral support of PvdA voters began to decline.
1965–1989 , party leader (1966–1986) and Prime Minister (1973–1977) In 1965, a conflict in the centre-right cabinet made continuation of the government impossible. The three
confessional parties turned toward the PvdA. Together they formed the
Cals cabinet, with KVP leader
Jo Cals as prime minister. This cabinet too was short-lived and conflict-ridden. The conflicts culminated in the fall of the Cals cabinet over
economic policy. Meanwhile, a younger generation was attempting to gain control of the PvdA. A group of young PvdA members, calling themselves the
New Left, changed the party. The New Left believed the party should become oriented towards the
new social movements, adopting their anti-parliamentary strategies and their issues, such as
women's liberation,
environmental conservation and
Third World development. Prominent New Left members were
Jan Nagel,
André van der Louw and
Bram Peper. One of their early victories followed the fall of the Cals cabinet. The party Congress adopted a motion that made it impossible for the PvdA to govern with the KVP and its Protestant allies. In response to the growing power of the New Left group, a group of older,
centrist party members, led by Willem Drees' son,
Willem Drees Jr., founded the New Right. They split in 1970, after it was clear that they had lost the conflict with the New Left, and founded a new moderate social democratic party,
Democratic Socialists '70 (DS'70). Under the New Left, the PvdA started a strategy of polarisation, striving for a cabinet based on a progressive majority in parliament. In order to form that cabinet, the PvdA allied itself with smaller progressive parties such as the
Democrats '66 (D'66) and the
Political Party of Radicals (PPR). The alliance was called the Progressive Accord (PAK). In the
1971 and
1972 general elections, these three parties promised to form a cabinet with a radical common programme after the elections. They were unable to gain a majority in either election. In 1971, they were kept out of cabinet, and the party of former PvdA members, DS'70, became a coalition partner in the
First Biesheuvel cabinet. In the 1972 elections, neither the PvdA and its allies nor the KVP and its allies were able to gain a majority. The two sides were forced to work together.
Joop den Uyl, the leader of the PvdA, led the cabinet. The cabinet was an
extra-parliamentary cabinet composed of members of the three progressive parties, the KVP and the ARP. The cabinet attempted to radically reform government, society and the economy, and a wide range of progressive social reforms were enacted during its time in office, such as significant increases in welfare payments and the indexation of benefits and the minimum wage to the cost of living. The PvdA also faced economic decline and was riddled with personal and ideological conflicts. The relationship between Prime Minister Den Uyl and the KVP
Deputy Prime Minister Dries Van Agt was particularly problematic. These conflict culminated when the cabinet fell just before the
1977 general election. The PvdA came first in that election, but the ideological and personal conflict between Van Agt and Den Uyl prevented the formation of a new centre-left cabinet. After very long cabinet formation talks, the
Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), itself a new
Christian democratic political formation composed of KVP, CHU and ARP, formed a government, based on a very narrow majority, with the VVD. The PvdA was left in opposition. In the
1981 general election, the incumbent CDA–VVD cabinet lost its majority. The CDA remained the largest party, but it was forced to co-operate with the PvdA and D'66 (the PPR had left the alliance, after losing in the 1977 election). In the new cabinet led by Van Agt, Den Uyl returned to cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister. The personal and ideological conflict between Van Agt and Den Uyl culminated in the fall of the cabinet just months after it was formed. The VVD and the CDA together had a majority in the
1982 general election and retained this in the
1986 general election. The PvdA was left in opposition. During this period the party began to reform. Den Uyl retired from politics in 1986, appointing former
trade union leader
Wim Kok as his successor. ,
Third Way party leader (1986–2001) and Prime Minister (1994–2002)
1989–2010 After the
1989 general election, the PvdA returned to cabinet together with the CDA. Kok became Deputy Prime Minister to CDA leader
Ruud Lubbers. The PvdA accepted the major economic reforms of the previous Lubbers cabinets, including
privatisation of
public enterprises and
reform of the welfare state. They continued these policies in this cabinet. The cabinet faced heavy protest from the unions and saw major political conflict within the PvdA itself. In the
1994 general election, the PvdA–CDA coalition lost its majority in parliament; the PvdA, however, emerged as the biggest party. Kok formed a government together with the conservative liberal VVD and social liberal D66. This so-called
purple government was a political novelty, because it was the first since 1918 without any ministers from the CDA or its predecessors. The
First Kok cabinet continued the Lubbers-era economic reforms, but combined this with a progressive outlook on ethical questions and promises of political reform. Kok became a very popular Prime Minister; he was not a partisan figure but combined successful
technocratic policies with the charisma of a national leader. In the
1998 general election, the cabinet was rewarded for its stewardship of the economy. The PvdA and the VVD increased their seat counts, at the expense of D66; the
Second Kok cabinet was formed. Kok retired from politics, leaving the leadership of the party to his preferred successor
Ad Melkert. The PvdA was expected to perform very well in the
2002 general election; however, the political rise of
Pim Fortuyn frustrated these hopes. The PvdA lost the 2002 election, and the party's parliamentary representation fell from 45 seats to 23. The loss was blamed on the uncharismatic new leader Melkert, the perceived arrogance of the PvdA and the inability to answer the
right-wing populist issues Fortuyn raised, especially
immigration and
integration. Melkert resigned as party leader and was replaced by
Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven. The PvdA was kept out of cabinet. The government formed by CDA, VVD and the
Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) fell after a very short period. , party leader (2002–2010) Meanwhile,
Wouter Bos,
Undersecretary in the Second Kok cabinet, was elected leader of the PvdA in a ballot among PvdA members, being elected closely to
Jouke de Vries. He started to democratise the party organisation and began an ideological reorientation. In the
2003 general election, Wouter Bos managed to regain almost all seats lost in the previous election, and the PvdA was once again the second largest party in the Netherlands, only slightly smaller than the CDA. Personal and ideological conflicts between Bos and the CDA leader
Jan Peter Balkenende prevented the formation of a CDA–PvdA cabinet. Instead, the PvdA was kept out of government by the formation of cabinet of the CDA, the VVD, and D66, the latter being former allies of PvdA. In the
2006 municipal elections, the renewed PvdA performed very well. The PvdA became by far the largest party nationally, while the three governing parties lost a considerable number of seats in municipal councils. The PvdA lost the race for
Prime Minister to the CDA after suffering a loss of nine seats in the
2006 general election. The PvdA now held only 33 seats, losing many votes to the
Socialist Party (SP). The PvdA had previously distanced themselves from the idea of a voting bloc on the left. It did, however, join the
fourth Balkenende cabinet on 22 February 2007, in which Wouter Bos became
minister of Finance. In the aftermath of the lost elections, the entire party executive stepped down on 26 April 2007. On Saturday 20 February 2010, the Labour Party withdrew from the government after arguments over the Dutch role in
Afghanistan.
2010–2023 The then-mayor of Amsterdam,
Job Cohen, took Wouter Bos' place as leader of the PvdA following the latter quitting politics. In the
2010 general election, the PvdA won 30 seats, a loss of three, and was narrowly overtaken by the VVD. After the election, a 'purple-plus coalition' was considered, which would have required the participation of
GroenLinks, in addition to the VVD, PvdA and D66 – but talks broke down and the PvdA entered opposition. , party leader (2016–2021) Cohen resigned as leader in February 2012.
Diederik Samsom was subsequently elected the party leader. In the
2012 general election, the Labour Party won 38 seats, a gain of eight, defying initial predictions that the
Socialist Party would overtake it. Following the election the party entered a governing coalition with the VVD under
Mark Rutte, with Labour's
Lodewijk Asscher becoming Deputy Prime Minister. In December 2016, Samson was defeated by
Lodewijk Asscher in a party leadership election. In the
2017 general election, the PvdA suffered the biggest defeat in Dutch electoral history, receiving only 5.7% of the votes and losing 29 of its 38 seats. Asscher did not resign from his post, claiming the defeat was his predecessor's responsibility. The party experienced a degree of revival in 2019, obtaining the most votes in
that year's European Parliament election. This marked the first time the PvdA had finished first in a national election since
1998. Ahead of the
2021 general election, Asscher resigned from the party leadership due to his part in the
childcare benefits scandal. He was replaced as leader and lead candidate by
Lilianne Ploumen, who became the party's first permanent female leader. Following the election, the PvdA participated unsuccessfully in the
2021 Dutch cabinet formation in conjunction with GroenLinks. Ploumen later left, claiming she was unsuited for the leadership. Ploumen was replaced as parliamentary leader by
Attje Kuiken.
Co-operation with GroenLinks (2023–) Following the
2023 Senate election on 30 May 2023, PvdA and GroenLinks deepened their co-operation by forming a joint parliamentary group in the senate, becoming the second-largest group behind the
Farmer–Citizen Movement. On 17 July 2023, the party and GroenLinks announced that they would contest the
2023 general election with a common policy programme and joint electoral list. With
Frans Timmermans as lead candidate, the joint parliamentary group became the second largest with 25 seats, but did not become part of the coalition. On 12 June 2025, members of the PvdA voted in favour of another joint list for the
general elections of 2025, as well as a merger with GroenLinks into a new party in 2026. == Ideology ==