PvdA–GroenLinks
# PvdA–GroenLinks

PvdA–GroenLinks (Dutch pronunciation:) is a centre-left political alliance between the Labour Party (PvdA) and GroenLinks (GL) in the Netherlands. The alliance was founded at the national level by party leaders Lilianne Ploumen and Jesse Klaver during the 2021–2022 cabinet formation, whereas local alliances between the two parties had already been formed in prior years. The two parties have formed a joint parliamentary group in the Provincial Council of Zeeland since 29 March 2023, before they formed a joint group in the Senate following the 2023 Senate election.

Following the collapse of the fourth Rutte cabinet on 7 July 2023, leaders of both the PvdA (Attje Kuiken) and GL (Jesse Klaver) announced that they intend to contest snap general election on a single electoral list, with a joint lijsttrekker. An internal vote among all members was held from 10–17 July 2023 to confirm the parties' intention of running on a united electoral list with a single election programme. Both parties' memberships overwhelmingly voted to approve the joint list, with nearly 92% of GL members and about 88% of PvdA members voting in favour.

## History

Prior to the formation of a national alliance, the Labour Party (PvdA) and GroenLinks (GL) had already formed local alliances in some municipalities; in the 2022 municipal elections, the two parties participated with a joint list in 50 local municipalities. In addition, they had formed electoral alliances (Dutch: lijstverbindingen) in multiple national elections, such as the 2009 European Parliament election and the 2010 general election.

### The concept behind the alliance

The idea of a possible merger of centre-left parties in the Netherlands, including the PvdA and GL, is not a new idea. As early as 2004, Job Cohen, then mayor of Amsterdam and later PvdA national leader, called for a merger of the PvdA, GL and Socialist Party (SP), suggesting "Progressive People's Party" as possible name. That name refers to an even earlier proposal with the same name that was discussed in the 1970s of the PvdA, Democrats 66 (D66) and the Political Party of Radicals (PPR), one of GL's forerunners, to merge into a single party. This, however, never materialised.

Following the heavy defeat of the PvdA in the 2017 general election, in which the party went from 25 percent to less than six percent of the vote, discussions about a possible merger began to rise again. With this electoral demise, the left-of-centre political landscape in the Netherlands - including D66, GL, SP, the Party for the Animals (PvdD), Christian Union (CU), Volt Netherlands, DENK and BIJ1 - fragmented. In both the 2017 and 2021 general elections, there was no left-leaning party big enough to be the main contender to Prime Minister Mark Rutte's People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from the left. Many left-leaning voters in the Netherlands have a habit of voting tactically for the largest left-leaning force in an attempt to prevent a right-leaning party from becoming the largest party. Examples of this are the 2012 and 2003 general elections when voters from other left-leaning parties flocked to the Labour Party.

When the PvdA and GL received a disappointing election result in the 2021 general election (5.7 percent and 5.0 percent respectively), calls for a merger increased. In the first week after the elections, members from both parties founded the movement Red-Green (Dutch: Rood-Groen) led by Frank van de Wolde calling for more cooperation between the two parties and an eventual merger. This movement has tabled motions in multiple party member meetings of both the PvdA and GL that pushed the parties towards a deeper cooperation. A list of these motions can be found below, together with the other membership votes.

### 2021–2022 cabinet formation

During the 2021–2022 cabinet formation, Lilianne Ploumen (PvdA) and Jesse Klaver (GL) indicated that they only wanted to join a coalition government if the other party also joined, thereby forming an alliance in the negotiations. In August 2021, PvdA members passed multiple motions tabled by the Red-Green movement that forced the party to not enter government without GL and further steps to strengthen the cooperation. People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) leader Mark Rutte strongly opposed forming a coalition with both the PvdA and GL, and referred to the alliance as a 'left-wing cloud' (Dutch: linkse wolk). Following their exclusion from the fourth Rutte cabinet, the Labour Party and GroenLinks decided to intensify co-operation as opposition parties.

### 2023 provincial and Senate elections

The PvdA and GL participated in the 2023 provincial elections separately, but formed a joint list in Zeeland. After the 2023 Senate election, in which the members of the Senate were elected by the members of the provincial councils and electoral colleges, the two parties formed a joint group in the senate. With fourteen seats, the PvdA–GroenLinks group became the second-largest senate group behind the Farmer–Citizen Movement.

## Possible merger

There has been an ongoing discussion about a possible merger of the two parties into a single party. Proponents – including former Labour Party leaders Job Cohen and Diederik Samsom and Labour Party prominent and former health minister Hedy d'Ancona, and GroenLinks prominents Bram van Ojik, Andrée van Es and Bas de Gaay Fortman – have shown support for a merger by becoming a member of each other's party. They have also founded the activist group 'RedGreen' (Dutch: RoodGroen) to advocate for the creation of a "strong, leftist movement" for "social, green and righteous politics". Opponents, on the other hand, have expressed concern for the "ideological dilution" and possible loss of electorate as a consequence of the parties' merger.

## Votes among Labour Party and GroenLinks members

Votes among Labour Party members :

| Date | Decision | In favour | Against |
| - | - | - | - |
| 28 August 2021 | The party board should intensify the talks with other left-wing parties and organizations, and present the results to the party congress. | 92.8% | 8.2% |
| 28 August 2021 | The Labour Party should form a joint parliamentary group with GroenLinks during and after the government talks. | 45.5% | 54.5% |
| 28 August 2021 | The Labour Party should construct a joint negotiation team with GroenLinks in the government talks of 2021 | 90.3% | 9.7% |
| 28 August 2021 | The Labour Party should investigate a merger of its parliamentary group with that of GroenLinks | 76.8% | 23.2% |
| 28 August 2021 | Declaration that in addition to cooperation with GroenLinks, there is no question of a merger, not even in the long term. | 18.9% | 81.1% |
| 28 August 2021 | The parliamentary group should not merge with other parties in a post-election phase. | 16.5% | 83.5% |
| 28 August 2021 | Substantial commitment together with the GroenLinks faction | 91.0% | 9.0% |
| 11 June 2022 | GroenLinks and Labour Party form a joint group in the Senate | 77% | 23% |
| 11 June 2022 | GroenLinks and Labour Party should, besides a joint group in the Senate, also run on a joint list in the Senate election of 2023 | 58% | 42% |
| 8 October 2022 | GroenLinks and Labour Party should hold discussions with members about a possible joint political programme/manifesto | 84.7% | 15.3% |
| 4 February 2023 | Labour Party members are allowed to become a member of GroenLinks as well while keeping their Labour Party membership | 76% | 24% |
| 4 February 2023 | Joint campaign in the European Parliament elections of 2024 with the Labour Party and a joint electoral programme | 87% | 13% |
| 4 February 2023 | A referendum must be held among all members for the next general elections whether to run on a joint list with the Labour Party | 83% | 17% |
| 10-17 July 2023 | GroenLinks and the Labour Party should run on a joint list in the upcoming snap general elections | 87.9% | 12.1% |

Votes among GroenLinks members :

| Date | Decision | In favour | Against |
| - | - | - | - |
| 12 February 2022 | Cooperation with PvdA on local level | 38.3% | 61.7% |
| 12 February 2022 | Learning from local cooperation | 85.2% | 14.8% |
| 12 February 2022 | Cooperation with left-wing parties more than just with PvdA | 78.9% | 21.1% |
| 12 February 2022 | Investigate a joint parliamentary group of GroenLinks and Labour Party | 57.6% | 42.4% |
| 12 February 2022 | Continue the cooperation between GroenLinks and Labour Party | 69.7% | 30.3% |
| 4-11 June 2022 | GroenLinks and Labour Party form a joint group in the Senate | 80% | 20% |
| 4 February 2023 | GroenLinks members are allowed to become a member of the Labour Party as well while keeping their GroenLinks membership | 81.8% | 18.2 |
| 4 February 2023 | Joint campaign in the European Parliament elections of 2024 with the Labour Party and a joint electoral programme | 77.9% | 22.1% |
| 4 February 2023 | A referendum must be held among all members for the next general elections whether to run on a joint list with the Labour Party | 83.1% | 16.9% |
| 10-17 July 2023 | GroenLinks and the Labour Party should run on a joint list in the upcoming snap general elections | 91.8% | 8.2% |

## Electoral results

### Provincial elections

| Year | Provincial Council | Provincial Council | Provincial Council | Provincial Council | Provincial Council |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Year | Province | Votes | % | Seats | +/− |
| 2023 | Zeeland | 24,514 | 13.4 | 6 / 39 | New |
