Gerdi Verbeet, former chairman of the House of Representatives, canceled her membership of the PvdA on Sunday evening. In a letter to party chairman Esther-Mirjam Sent, Verbeet writes that she feels “no longer at home” with the party after the “indecent state of affairs” at the GroenLinks-PvdA congress last Saturday.
She is therefore the third PvdA prominent who, this weekend, mainly due to the party congress in Nieuwegein, the party membership: former Member of Parliament Lutz Jacobi and former alderman in Barendrecht Reshma Roopram already did that.
Congress
The congress was mainly about the motion of MP Kati Piri about a complete arms embargo against Israel, including the delivery of parts for the Iron Drome rocket shield that protects citizens in Israel. According to Verbeet, a Social Democratic party must “take up at all times for the safety of innocent and endangered citizens.”
In her letter she calls it “cynical” that a “hopeless motion” was submitted in the Lower House by Piri “knowing how much Jewish and non-Jewish party members gets deeply and scares you.” Verbeet also wonders “who was served with it.” After which she takes to GroenLinks-PvdA leader Frans Timmermans: Was it for “the party leader who intensively enjoyed his warm bath in the red line demonstration?”
According to Verbeet, the presidency did nothing when “Boe” was called “with a different opinion” from the room. At the stage, people took it up for a motion, submitted by, among others, the former party leaders Lodewijk Asscher, Job Cohen and Ad Melkert, who aimed to turn the position of the GroenLinks-PvdA fraction over the arms embargo. Verbeet writes that people were “insulted” and “humiliated.” She writes: “I am deeply hurt and stunned that none of you intervened. Or was this perhaps the intention?” Photos of the congress showed that Verbeet was hit by the reactions.
Gerdi Verbeet and Ad Melkert during the member congress.
Photo Robin van Lonkuijsen/ANP
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Red -head
Gerdi Verbeet, together with former party leader Ad Melkert and Reshma Roopram, was one of the founders of Rood Vooruit, a group of PvdA members who have nothing to do with GroenLinks and organizes meetings a few times a year. In her letter to the party chairman it is also going on. According to Verbeet, the party board of the PvdA has “forced” that merger and “constantly violated member democracy.”
She writes that “merely power reasons” are the motivation for the merger. “A historical decision with a fatal outcome for social democracy in the Netherlands.” At the congress, a motion of Red Vooruit was voted on the social -democratic ‘basis’ that should be preserved at the merger party.
The PvdA, Verbeet writes, has ‘removed’ herself. “In terms of political convictions and internal democracy and manners. And that while the Social Democracy has and remains ingrained.” She was a member of the PvdA for 52 years. In return for NRC says Verbeet (74) that she is “deeply sad” about her decision. “It feels like a divorce. But I can’t help it.”
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