Dutch surge

Felicity Gray

The recent elections in the Netherlands were watched here and internationally with much anticipation. GroenLinks rocketed from four seats in Parliament to an expected 14, and gained  a +6.7 per cent swing. 

The Party grew its vote impressively right across the country. However, it made truly gobsmacking gains in metropolitan centres such as Amsterdam, where the party now receives the highest proportion of the vote of any party, surging from 5.4 per cent at the 2012 election to 19.3 per cent in 2017 — an almost 14 per cent swing. Similarly, in the student city of Utrecht, the vote rose from 6.7 per cent in 2012 to 20.2 per cent in 2017.

These gains came as the result of a strong, inclusive, social media-focused campaign that engaged young people. In leader Jesse Klaver's words, the party focused on a message of “disrupting Dutch politics in a positive way” with “a message of hope, optimism and change”. He didn't talk about party politics, but about building a movement. The message appears to have cut through. Klaver was rated the winner of a televised election debate on the weekend prior to the election, and the Party successfully attracted over 5000 attendees to the biggest political rally in recent Dutch political history.

Klaver's charismatic leadership was central to the campaign. Though Klaver laments the individual focus that was placed on him by the Dutch media — how his tie is knotted, his age (he's the youngest political leader in Dutch politics at 30), or how his shirt sleeves are rolled — his leadership has undoubtedly been important to the success of the campaign. In the words of one Dutch voter, “I'm a GroenLinks voter. I'm for a better environment and Jesse Klaver is great. I think it's better that he's younger — he's a year older than me, and I trust my generation.”

Addressing racism

GroenLinks' gains are even more jaw-dropping in the broader context of the Dutch vote, which saw other parties on the left dealt major blows to their support.

A key element to GroenLinks' success seemed to be the decision to tackle the issue of racism directly. Other left parties, like the Mao-ist influenced Socialist Party, failed both in gaining traction and in taking up this question of racism in a serious manner. While they focused on calls for more 'inclusion', Klavers attacked the establishment: “You are not just fighting Geert Wilders, you are fighting his ideas. When it comes to populism we can fight it better.”

The centre-left Labor Party (PvDA) lost 29 seats. It is now left with just nine and failed to come first in any district. This might be a response to the coalition agreement PvDA made with free-market conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) — it appears many of its voters split to support anti-racist parties, in particular GroenLinks, D66, and Denk, the pro-immigrant split from PvDA. This collapse in the establishment left means that GroenLinks are now the largest left party remaining and will be a leading political force.

Just as in the lead up to the recent Western Australian state election, commentators predicted a strong surge from hard-right, anti-Islam, anti-immigration Geert Wilders and his ultra-nationalist Party for Freedom (PVV). Some even predicted that they would form government. Though these predictions did not come to fruition (thankfully!), the PVV increased its representation to 20 seats, and came in second behind Prime Minister Mark Rutte's conservative People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), who will remain in coalition government despite losing eight seats, down from 41 to 33.

Watch and learn

Right across the political spectrum the vote fragmented as support for micro parties rose, and negotiating a multiparty government will be particularly difficult after this election. Historically, Dutch governments have been formed as coalitions. But, since the 1970s these coalitions have been formed by no more than three parties. As Prime Minister Rutte now acts to form a majority coalition, it is likely that he will need at least three other parties to form government, and finding coalition partners that can work together will be a challenge. 

Regardless, GroenLinks' enormous gains have shown us two things. The first is that message connected with the community, and that the Greens can be the voice for those disaffected and disillusioned with the old guard of politics. The second is that in a climate of rising support for micro parties — and in some places growing hard-right, ultra-nationalist sentiment — the Greens must work with and as part of the community to continue to be the voice for compassion and sustainability in the parliament.

Now, GroenLinks has some decisions to make: will the Party be more effective as a left-wing opposition or as part of a Rutte-led coalition? Both paths have benefits and pit-falls. Either way, we'll be watching closely.

Felicity Gray is the Australian Greens International Secretary, and previously studied at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Additional contributions to this article were made by NSW Greens member Evan van Zijl.

Header image courtesy of GroenLinks; portrait image of Jesse Klaver by Leon Boelens.