GroenLinks

This article is about the Dutch political party. For other uses of the term 'Green Left', see Green Left (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox Dutch Political Party GroenLinks (GL, English: GreenLeft) is a Dutch Green political party.

The party stands for "green" "social", and "tolerant" politics. The GreenLeft was formed in 1989 as a merger of four leftwing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, Pacifist Socialist Party, de Political Party Radicals en de Evangelical People's Party. GreenLeft has seven seats in the Tweede Kamer and four in the Eerste Kamer. Party leader is Femke Halsema. Currently it is in opposition against the fourth cabinet Balkenende.

History

Before 1989

GreenLeft was founded as merger of four parties that were at the left of the main social-democratic Labour Party: the destalinized Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN), the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), which was formed by the peace movement, the green Political Party Radicals (PPR), which was founded as progressive Christian party, and the progressive christian Evangelical People's Party. These four were often grouped as "small left". In the 1972 elections these parties won sixteen seats, in the 1977 elections they were left with only six. From that moment on, people began to plead for cooperation.

Since the 1980s these parties began to cooperate in municipal and provincial elections and legislatives, because a higher percentage of votes is necessary to gain seats in such elections. In 1984 the PPR, CPN and PSP formed the Green Progressive Accord that entered with one list in the European elections. They won one seat, which rotated between the PSP and PPR. Party-members also met 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 one of the two mass protests against the placement nuclear weapons of 1981 and 1983.

The cooperation between these parties and the ideological change that accompanied it also led to internal dissent. The ideological change that CPN made from revolutionary marxism-leninism to "reformism" led to a split in the CPN which led to the founding of the League of Communists in the Netherlands in 1982. Before the election of 1986 the CPN and the PPR wanted to form an electoral alliance with the PSP. This led to a crisis within the party: chair of the parliamentary party, Fred van der Spek who opposed cooperation was replaced by Andrée van Es, who favoured cooperation. Van der Spek founded his own Party for Socialism and Disarmament. The 1986 PSP congress however still rejected cooperation. Earlier a group of "deep" Greens split from the PPR, they would found the the Greens eventually. The Evangelical People's Party was founded in 1981 as a split from the main Christian democratic Christian Democratic Appeal, in its period in parliament 1982-1986 it was torn between the small left, the PvdA and the CDA.

In the elections of 1986 all these parties lost seats. The CPN and the EVP disappeared out of parliament. The PPR and the PSP were left with two and one seats. The parties prepared to enter in the 1990 elections separately. The pressure to cooperate however also increased: in 1989 the PPR, CPN and PSP formed a common list for the European elections called the Rainbow. In an internal election the members of the PSP declared to support leftwing cooperation (70% in favour of the 64% voting members). Their initiative for leftwing cooperation was supported by an open letter from members of trade unions (such as Paul Rosenmöller and Karin Adelmund), environmental movements (such as Jacqueline Cramer) and the arts (such as Rudi Dantzig) which called for one progressive formation left of the PvdA. The initiative for the referendum and the open letter was taken by a group of PSP-party board members Joost Lagendijk and Leo Platvoet. They take part in an informal ("F.C. Sittardia"; Cliché bv) of prominent PSP, PPR en CPN-members who favour cooperation, including PPR-chairman Bram van Ojik and former CPN-leader Ina Brouwer.

In 1989 the PSP opened talks with the PPR and the PSP for a common list for the general elections. When it became clear that the CPN wanted to maintain its own communist identity the PPR left the talks. The talks were reopened after the fall of the Second cabinet Lubbers and the announcement that elections would be held in the autumn of that year. The talks were opened again now with PSP, CPN, EVP and PPR. The PPR was represented for a short while by an informal delegation led by former chair Wim de Boer, because the party board did not want to come back on it leaving the talks. In the summer of 1989 the congresses of the four parties accepted the common program and list of candidates. An association Green Left (Dutch: Vereniging Groen Links; VGL) was set up to allow sympathizers who were not member of any of the parties to join. Meanwhile the European elections of 1989 where held and the same formation had entered under the name "Rainbow". On November 24 1990 the party GreenLeft was officially founded.

1989-1994

1989 election poster showing the old logo in which the pink lines and the blue spaces forming allude to a peace sign.

In the 1989 elections one list of PPR, CPN, PSP and EVP entered: Groen Links. The list was organized in such a way that all the parties were represented and new figures could enter. The PPR which had been the largest party in 1986 got the top candidate (Ria Beckers) and the number five, the PSP the numbers two and six, the CPN the number three and the EVP number eleven. The first independent candidate was Paul Rosenmöller, trade unionist from Rotterdam, the number four. In the elections the party doubled its seats in comparison to 1986 (from three to six) but the expectations had been much higher.

In the period 1989-1991 the merger developed further. A board was organized for the party-in-foundation and a Green Left Council, which was supposed to control the board and the parliamentary party and stimulate the process of merger, all five groups (CPN, PPR, PSP, EVP and the Vereniging Groen Links all had seats as ratio of the number of party members. Originally, the three youth organizations, the CPN-linked General Dutch Youth League, the PSP-linked Pacifist Socialist Young Working Groups and the PPR-linked Political Party of Radical Youth refused to merge under pressure of the government, who controlled their subsidies they did merge to form DWARS. In 1990 some opposition formed against the moderate, green course of the Green Left. 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.

The Green Left had considerable problems with formulating its own ideology. In 1990 the attempt to write the first manifesto of principles failed because of the difference between socialists and communists on the one side and the more liberal former PPR-members on the other side. The second manifesto of principles which was not allowed the name manifesto of principles was adopted after a lengthy debate and many amendments in 1991.

Although the party was internally divided the Green Left parliamentary party was the only party in the Dutch parliament which opposed the Gulf War. A debate within the party about the role military intervention led to a more nuanced standpoint than the pacifism of some of its predecessors: the Green Left would support peace-keeping missions as long as they were mandated by the United Nations.

In the fall of 1990 MEP Verbeek announced that he would, as he had promised, leave the European Parliament after two and a half years to make room for a new candidate. He would continue as an independent and remain in parliament until 1994. In the 1994 election, he would run unsuccessfully as top candidate of the Greens.

In 1992 party leader Ria Beckers left the Tweede Kamer because she wanted to spend more time on her private life . Peter Lankhorst replaced her as chair ad interim, but he announced that he would not take part in the internal elections.

1994-2002

1994 election posters showing the duo Rabbae/Brouwer. The text reads: the GreenLeft counts double.

Before the election of 1994 the GreenLeft organized an internal election on the party's political leadership. Two duos entered Ina Brouwer (former CPN)/Mohammed Rabbae (independent) and Paul Rosenmöller (independent)/Leoni Sipkes (former PSP) and five singular candidates (including Wim de Boer (former chair of the PPR and member of the Eerste Kamer), Herman Meijer (former CPN; and future chair of the party) and Ineke van Gent (former PSP and future MP)). Some candidates ran in duos because they wanted to combine family life with politics. Brouwer, Rosenmöller and Sipkes already were MP for the GreenLeft, Rabbae was new, he had been chair of the Dutch Centre for Foreigners. In the first round the duos ended up a head of the others, but neither had an absolute majority. A second round was need which Brouwer and Rabbae won with 51%. Brouwer became the first candidate and Rabbae second, the second duo Rosenmöller and Sipkes occupied the following place followed by Marijke Vos, former chair of the party. The duo-top candidacy did not communicate well to the votes. The GreenLeft lost one seat, leaving only five, while the PvdA also lost a lot of seats.

After the elections, Brouwer left parliament, she was replaced as party leader by Paul Rosenmöller and her seat was taken by Tara Singh Varma. The charismatic Rosenmöller became the "unofficial leader" of the opposition against the cabinet Kok because the main opposition party the CDA was unable to adept well to its new role as opposition party. Rosenmöller set out a new strategy: the GreenLeft should offer alternatives instead of just rejecting the proposals made by the government.

In the elections of 1998 the GreenLeft more than doubled its seats to eleven. The charisma of the charismatic "unofficial leader" Rosenmöller played an important role in this. Many new faces entered parliament. Femke Halsema, a political talent who had left the PvdA for the GreenLeft in 1997, Kees Vendrik and Ineke van Gent. The party began to speculate openly about joining government after the elections of 2002.

The 1999 Kosovo War divided the party internally. The Tweede Kamer parliamentary party supported the NATO intervention, while the Eerste Kamer parliamentary party was against the intervention. Several former PSP members within the Tweede Kamer parliamentary party began to openly speak out their doubts about the intervention. A compromise was found: the GreenLeft would support the intervention as long as it limited itself to military targets. Prominent members of the founding parties including Marcus Bakker en Joop Vogt left the party over this issue.

In 2001 the integrity of former MP Tara Singh Varma came into doubt: it was revealed that she had lied about her illness and that she had made promises to development organisations which she did not fulfill. In 2000 she had left parliament because as she claimed, she had only a few months to live before she would die of cancer. The TROS program "Opgelicht" (In English "Framed") revealed that she had lied and the she did not have cancer. In 2002 she apologised on public television and claimed she suffered from mythomania.

In the same year the parliamentary party supported the invasion of Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of september 11 of the year. This invasion led to great upheaval within the party. Several former PSP members within the Tweede Kamer 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 organization DWARS, the parliamentary party changed its position: the attacks should be cancelled.

Several members of the The Greens, including Roel van Duijn joined the GreenLeft, while maintaining their membership of the Greens.

2002-now

File:GreenLeft-2002.jpeg

2002 election posters showing Rosenmöller. The text reads: GreenLeft for a new balance.

The 2002 elections were characterized by change in the political climate. The rightwing political commentator Pim Fortuyn entered politics. He had anti-establishment message, combined with a call for restrictions of immigration. Although his critique was oriented at the second cabinet Kok, Rosenmöller was one of the only politicians who could muster some resistance against his message. Days before the election Fortuyn was killed by an animal rights-activist. Just before the elections Ab Harrewijn, GreenLeft MP and candidate also died. Before and after the elections serious threats were made against Rosenmöller, his wife and his children. These events caused considerable stress for Rosenmöller. The GreenLeft lost one seat in the election, although it had gained more votes than in the 1998 elections. Before the 2003 elections Rosenmöller left parliament, citing the on-going 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.

In 2003 the GreenLeft almost unanimously turned against the Iraq War. It took part in the protests against the war, for instance by organising its party congress in Amsterdam at the day of the large demonstration, with an interval allowing its members to join the protest.

At the end of 2003 Halsema temporarily left parliament to give birth to her twins. During her absence Marijke Vos took her place as chair of the parliamentary party.

When she returned to parliament, Halsema started a discussion about the principles of her party. She emphasized individual freedom, tolerance, selfrealization 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. In 2005 the party's scientific bureau published the book "Vrijheid als Ideaal" ("Freedom as Ideal") in which prominent opinion-makers explored the new political space and the position of the left within that space. During the congress of February 2006 the party board was ordered to organize 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 GreenLeft delegation, Joost Lagendijk, should become the party's top candidate in those elections. A group of members, led by member of the Eerste Kamer Leo Platvoet submitted a motion "We want to chose". They wanted a serious choice for such an important office. The party's board announced a new electoral procedure. During the congress Kathalijne Buitenweg, also MEP and candidate, announced her candidacy 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 May 2005 MP Farah Karimi wrote a book in which discussed in detail how she had taken part in the Iranian Revolution, because this information was already known by the party board this did not lead to any upheaval. In November 2005 however the party board asked member of the Eerste Kamer Sam Pormes to give up his seat. Continuing rumors 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 up, the party board threatened to remove him from the party ranks. Pormes fought this decision. The party council of March 2006 sided with Pormes. Party chair Herman Meijer felt forced to give up his position. He was succeeded by Henk Nijhof who was chose by the party council in May 2006. In November 2006 Pormes left the Eerste Kamer, he was replaced by Goos Minderman.

2006 election posters showing Halsema. The text reads: Grow along, GreenLeft. The turret is the official working office of the Dutch Prime Minister.

In the 2006 Dutch municipal election the party stayed relatively stable losing only a few seats. After the elections the GreenLeft took part in 75 local executives, including Amsterdam where MP Marijke Vos became alderwoman.

In preparation of the 2006 elections the party held a congress in October. It elected Halsema, again the only candidate as the party's top candidate. MEP Kathalijne Buitenweg and comedian Vincent Bijlo were last candidates. In the 2006 elections the party lost one seat.

In the subsequent cabinet formation an initial exploratory round among the CDA-SP-PvdA failed, Halsema announced that GreenLeft would not be involved in further discussion at that point in time, as the party lost, was too small, and had less in common with CDA than the SP had. Following this decision an internal debate about the political course and the leadership of Halsema erupted. The debate does just concern the series of lost elections and the decision not to participate in the formation talks, but also the elitist image of the party, the new liberal course, iniated by Halsema and the lack of party democracy. Since the last weeks of January 2007 several prominent party members have voiced their doubts including former leader Ina Brouwer senator Leo Platvoet and MEP Joost Lagendijk. In reaction to this the party board has set up a commission led by former MP and chair of the PPR Bram van Ojik. They will look into the lost elections. Another commission also chaired by Van Ojik was requested in by the congress of February 2006. It will look into the party's principles, organization and strategy

Name

The name "GroenLinks" (until 1992 spelt "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 emphasizes the core ideals of the party, environmental sustainability and social justice

Ideology & Issues

Ideology

The core ideals of the GreenLeft are its program of principles the GreenLeft although Halsema herself claims that she does not want to force an ideological change. She claims that she places the GreenLeft in the "freedomloving tradition of the left", as the party's manifesto of principles did as well.

Following Isaiah Berlin Halsema distinguishes between positive and negative freedom. Negative freedom is according to Halsema the freedom 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 the GreenLeft is undogmatic party, that has anarchist tendencies.

Proposals

The election manifesto for the 2006 elections was adopted in october of that year. It was titled "Groei Mee" ("Grow with us"). The manifesto emphasizes international cooperation, welfare state reform, environmental policy and the multicultural society.

In the program, international politics is an important thema. The propose the following policies:

• Increasing the spending on development aid to 1,5% of the Gross National Product, fair trade, democratization of the IMF and the World Bank and canceling of debt of third world countries;
• The GreenLeft is positive about European integration, but critical about the current policies of the European Commission. It favoured the European Constitution and advocated a new treaty which emphasized democracy and subsidiarity
• THe party wants to increase the powers of the United Nations to prevent conflicts. It is critical about the war against terrorism. It advocates the reform of the Dutch armed forces to a peace force.
• The party favours a humane asylum seeker policy. It wants to empower victims of human trafficking by giving them a residence permit; and it wants to abolish the income demands for marriage migration.

In its 2006 election manifesto the GreenLeft attempted to formulated an alternative for both the "social demolition" by the Cabinets Balkenende and the "conservatism" of SP and PvdA. The party wants to reform the welfare state so it will benefit "outsiders" those who have been excluded from the welfare state until now. This includes groups like migrants, women, people on a short term contract and people with disabilities.

• It wants to implement the green tax shift: to create more employment the party wants to lower taxes on lower paid labour, this would be compensated by higher taxes on pollution.
• To help more people get a job the GreenLeft proposes a participationcontract. 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.
• The party wants to make it easier for people to go on leave and wants to make child care free.
• The GreenLeft wants to decrease the income differences by making child benefits, government pensions and mortgage interest deductions dependent on ones income.
• The party wants to give the underprivileged better chances by investing in education, especially in the VMBO.

The GreenLeft wants to solve environmental problems, especially climate change, by stimulating durable alternatives:

• The party wants to invest more money in public education, this money can be diverted from the money which is used for expanding highways; the party wants to implement a system of tolls on the use of roads (called "rekening rijden") as soon as possible.
• The party wants to lay down animal rights in the Constitution; it wants to stimulate organic farming through taxes and subsidies; and it wants to decrease the use of animal testing with 50% in four years.
• The party wants to use subsidies, taxes and emissions trading to stimulate alternative energy; it wants to stimulate energy saving; it also wants end drilling for gas in the Waddenzee and close all nuclear plants in the Netherlands.

The GreenLeft values individual freedom, the multicultural society and the rule of law. It seeks to:

• Deal firmly with discrimination, especially on the labour market; and it wants to have a better representation of minorities (migrant, women, gay) in the police.
• Legalise soft drugs.
• Limit the use of AIVD-information in the court room
• Secure the independence of the Public Broadcasting system
• In the long term abolish the Dutch monarchy and instead become a republic

Representation & Support

Overview

In this table the election results of the GreenLeft in Tweede Kamer, Eerste Kamer, European and provincial elections is represented, as well as the party's political leadership: the fractievoorzitter, is the chair of the parliamentary party and the lijsttrekker is the party's top candidate in the general election, these posts are normally taken by the party's leader. The party's membership and the party chair is represented as well.

Year	TK	EK	EP	PS	Fractievoorzitter	Lijsttrekker	Party chair	Members
1989	6	3	2	32	Ria Beckers	Ria Beckers	Leo Platvoet	unknown
1990	6	3	2	32	Ria Beckers	no elections	Marijke Vos	15.900
1991	6	4	2	36	Ria Beckers	no elections	Marijke Vos	14.971
1992	6	4	2	36	Ria Beckers	no elections	Marijke Vos	13.548
1993	6	4	2	36	Peter Lankhorst	no elections	Marijke Vos	12.500
1994	5	4	1	36	Paul Rosenmöller	Ina Brouwer and Mohammed Rabbae	Marjan Lucas	12.500
1995	5	4	1	37	Paul Rosenmöller	no elections	Ab Harrewijn	12.000
1996	5	4	1	37	Paul Rosenmöller	no elections	Ab Harrewijn	11.700
1997	5	4	1	37	Paul Rosenmöller	no elections	Ab Harrewijn	11.873
1998	11	4	1	37	Paul Rosenmöller	Paul Rosenmöller	M. Brouwer	13.821
1999	11	8	4	77	Paul Rosenmöller	no elections	Miriam de Rijk	13.855
2000	11	8	4	77	Paul Rosenmöller	no elections	Miriam de Rijk	14.314
2001	11	8	4	77	Paul Rosenmöller	no elections	Miriam de Rijk	15.037
2002	10	8	4	77	Paul Rosenmöller	Paul Rosenmöller	Miriam de Rijk	18,469
2003	8	5	2	51	Femke Halsema	Femke Halsema	Herman Meijer	20,503
2004	8	5	2	51	Femke Halsema	no elections	Herman Meijer	20,709
2005	8	5	2	51	Femke Halsema	no elections	Herman Meijer	21,383
2006	8	5	2	51	Femke Halsema	Femke Halsema	Henk Nijhoff	23,490
2007	7	4	2	311	Femke Halsema	no elections	Henk Nijhoff	21,901

¹ 32 members of provincial parliaments were elected, but Cheryl Braam was soon no longer let into the North Holland parliamentary party after it became known that she had lied over voting invalid in the First Chamber

Members of the Lower House of Parliament

After the 2006 elections the party has seven representatives in the lower house of parliament:

1. Femke Halsema, chair of the parliamentary party. In parliament since 1998. Criminologist, who worked for the Scientific Institute of the social-democratic PvdA, before joining the GreenLeft in 1997.
2. Kees Vendrik, financial spokesperson, vice-chair. In parliament since 1998. Political economist, who worked for De Balie. He was a member of the PSP before 1991.
3. Wijnand Duyvendak, environmental spokesperson. In parliament since 2002. Has a background in social movements, was director of MilieuDefensie.
4. Mariko Peters, foreign affairs spokesperson. In parliament since 2006. Lawyer, who has been deputy chef de post in Kabul.
5. Ineke van Gent, social affairs spokesperson. In parliament since 1998. She worked for the FNV. She was a member of the PSP before 1991.
6. Naïma Azough, justice spokesperson. In parliament since 2002 with a one year hiatus. Journalist.
7. Tofik Dibi, education and integration spokesperson. In parliament since 2006. He studied media studies and was involved in the anti-racism movement.

Members of the Upper House of Parliament

After the 2007 elections the party has four representatives in the upper house of parliament:

1. Tof Thissen, chair of the parliamentary party. He is MP since 2004. He is spokesperson on education, local government and the economy. In addition to his membership of the Eerste Kamer he is director of Divosa. He was an alderman in Roermond for the GreenLeft. Before 1991 he was member of the PSP.
2. Britta Böhler is spokesperson on defense, justice and the Environment. She is MP since 2007. In addition to her membership of the Eerste Kamer she is a human rights lawyer.
3. Tineke Strik is spokesperson on home affairs, foreign affairs and social affairs. She is MP since 2007. In addition to her membership of the Eerste Kamer she is a legal researcher. She was an alderwoman in Wageningen for the GreenLeft.
4. Jan Laurier is spokesperson finance, health and housing. He is MP since 2007. He was an alderman in Leiden for the GreenLeft. Before 1991 he was member of the CPN.

Members of the European Parliament

After the 2004 European Parliament elections the party has two representatives in the European Parliament:

1. Kathalijne Buitenweg is chair of the delegation. MEP since 1999. She is spokesperson on justice and the environment. Before entering the EP she was involved in the anti-racism movement. Previously she has been a member of the PvdA.
2. Joost Lagendijk is MEP since 1998. He was chair of the delegation between 1998 and 2004. He is spokesperson on foreign affairs and is chair of the delegation to Turkey. Before entering the EP he worked as a publisher. Before 1991 he was a member of the PSP.

Together with Bart Staes from the Belgian party Groen!, they form one transnational delegation. GroenLinks MEPs are part of the Greens/EFA.

Municipal & Provincial Government

On the municipal level, the party provides 7 mayors (out of 414), in smaller municipalities such as Bloemendaal, Diemen and Wormerland, these are also appointed by the Minister of the Interior.

The GreenLeft did not perform particularly well in the 2006 municipal elections, losing several of its more than 400 seats. In the formation of municipal executives it was more successful and the number of municipal executives the GreenLeft was part of grew with 50%. It is part of the municipal executive of several larger cities notably Nijmegen, Utrecht, the Hague, Leiden, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, where former MP Marijke Vos is alderwoman. The GreenLeft has 70 members of burrough-level legislatives, 53 in Amsterdam and 17 in Rotterdam.

On the provincial level, the GreenLeft provides one Queen's Commissioner (out of 12) in North Holland. Queen's Commissioners appointed by the Minister of the Interior. The GreenLeft is part of the North Holland provincial executive. It holds 51 seats in provincial legislatives.

In the following figure one can see the election results of the provincial election of 2007 per province. It shows the areas where the GreenLeft is strong, namely the urban areas like North Holland and Utrecht. The party is weaker in rural provinces like Friesland and Zeeland, but also strong in the rural Groningen, where the Communist Party of the Netherlands, one of the founding parties of the GreenLeft was very strong.

Province	Votes (%)	Seats	Provincial Executives
Groningen	7,6%	3	opposition
Friesland	3.9%	2	opposition
Drenthe	4.7%	2	opposition
Overijssel	4.3%	2	opposition
Flevoland	5.5%	2	opposition
Gelderland	5.9%	3	opposition
Utrecht	9.0%	4	opposition
Noord-Holland	9.7%	5	Albert Moens (prov. exec.) and Harry Borghouts (Queen's Comm.)
Zuid-Holland	5.9%	3	opposition
Zeeland	4.9%	2	Marten Wiersma (prov. exec.)
North-Brabant	4.1%	2	opposition
Limburg	4.2%	2	opposition

Electorate

The GreenLeft tends to do particularly well in larger cities that host a university, such as Amsterdam (where it scored 12,5%), Utrecht (12,2%) and Wageningen (11,8%), Nijmegen (10.4%) and Leiden (10.0%). More women vote for the GreenLeft, then men by a margin of 20%. The party is also overrepresented under homosexual voters.

The voters of the GreenLeft have an excentric 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 favour of smaller income differences, free choice for euthanasia, opening the borders for asylum seekers, the multicultural society and are firmly against building new nuclear plants.

Style & Campaign

Since 1994 the logo of the GreenLeft is the name of the party with the word "Green" written in red and the word "Left" written in green, a tongue in cheek way of addressing the relationship between green and leftwing politics. Additional colours used in the logo are white, yellow and blue. The previous 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 GreenLeft in green and pink.

Often well-known Dutch people help the election campaign. In 1989 choreographer Rudi van Dantzig and writer Astrid Roemer were last candidate. In 2006 comedian Vincent Bijlo took this position. Comedienne Sara Kroos, rapper Raymzter, astronaut Wubbo Ockels en soccer player Khalid Boulahrouz have also committed their name to (a part of) the 2007 GreenLeft elections campaign.

File:HQ GroenLinks.jpg

Party Bureau of the GreenLeft in Utrecht

Organization

Organizational structure

The highest organ of the GreenLeft is the party congress, which is open to all members. The congress elects the party-board, it decides on the order of the candidates for national and European elections and it has a final say over the party program. The congress convenes at least once every year in spring or when needed. The party board consists out of fifteen members who are elected for a two year term. The chairperson of this board is the only paid position on the board, the others are unpaid. The chairperson together with four other boardmembers (the vice-chair, the treasurer, the secretary, the European secretary and the international secretary) handles the daily affairs and meet every two weeks while the other ten board members meet only once a month.

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.

GreenLeft MPs face relatively strong regulation: MPs are not allowed to run for more than three terms and a relatively high percentage of the income of MPs is taxed by the party.

The GreenLeft has 250 branches in nearly all Dutch municipalities and each province. There are multiple municipalities in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where every borough has its own branch and they have federal branches at the municipal level. Branches enjoy considerable independence, and take care of their own campaigns, lists of candidates and programs for elections. Provincial congresses meet every year and municipal congresses more often. The total number of members of GreenLeft has been steadily increasing over the last ten years and had 23,490 members in of January 2007.

There are several independent organizations which are linked to the GreenLeft

• DWARS, the independent youth organization of the GreenLeft;
• 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.
• The Scientific Bureau GreenLeft, the independent political think tank which publishes "de Helling" (Dutch for "the Slope").

The GreenLeft 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 European Greens–European Free Alliance group. The GreenLeft cooperates with seven other Dutch parties in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, an institute which supports democratic development in developing countries.

Relationship to social organizations

The GreenLeft has strong personal, practical and ideological ties with environmental groups like Milieudefensie ("Defense of the Environment") and the Stichting Natuur en Milieu (|Foundation for Nature and the Environment"). Many members of the GreenLeft are active with the FNV. Some prominent party-members, including Femke Halsema, Kees Vendrik and Naima Azough, have worked for De Balie an Amsterdam debating centre.

Relationships to other parties

The GreenLeft was founded to become a mid-sized party to the left of the PvdA. In the 1994 elections however the Socialist Party (SP) also entered parliament. The GreenLeft now takes a center 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 GreenLeft. The electoral alliance between SP and GL in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 elections, and between the GreenLeft 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.

International Comparison

Internationally GreenLeft is comparable to the larger European Green parties, most of which have already been in government, like the German Alliance '90/The Greens. They are more realist and less Green than the American and English and Welsh green parties, but also in many cases more leftwing and internationalist.

External links

• GroenLinks.nl Official Site
• campaign ad
• collection of all blogs of GreenLeft members