At the SP, a party leader is not simply dumped, even after a disappointing election result. Lilian Marijnissen’s position remained strong, even though she lost seats in six elections in a row in six years. But the seventh loss was one too many.
Once again, Marijnissen would have liked to stay on, but she saw increasing dissatisfaction in her party. There is a “need for a new face,” Marijnissen said on Saturday. That is why she is resigning as party leader and Member of Parliament of the SP.
That dissatisfaction was already evident on the Saturday after the elections, when all local department chairmen met at the SP office in Amersfoort for a ‘party council’. They evaluated the campaign behind closed doors. And more criticism was expressed than before.
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If there was one election campaign that the SP could have controlled, it was this one, it was said. It was a lot about social security, poverty and healthcare: themes that voters associate with the SP. And for which the party has far-reaching plans.
But on the streets, SP volunteers across the country heard the same thing: voters sympathized with the socialists, but gave their vote to PVV, GroenLinks-PvdA or NSC.
The party is in danger of slowly becoming irrelevant, local SP members said on Thursday NRC. “If nothing changes now, we could turn off the lights in four years,” said a local SP leader. Some directed their criticism explicitly at Marijnissen: “Lilian was not able to convey our message well enough, she is not inspiring enough.”
Most SP members did not choose such strong words at the party council. There was much more despair. Most SP members still have great appreciation for Marijnissen: she is sharp in TV debates, she does not make mistakes and always scores high approval ratings in voter surveys. But what good is that if you always lose elections? That is why these SP members also said: shouldn’t we also discuss the leadership question?
The party leadership tried to postpone that question for a while. First, the scientific bureau would analyze the campaign and the election results. But Marijnissen is not waiting for that investigation, it now appears, and wants to listen to the voices from her party.
Her announcement came a day after a meeting of the SP board. In that meeting, Marijnissen had “not tasted enough support” to continue, MP Bart van Kent told the ANP news agency.
Political relevance
When Marijnissen took charge at the end of 2017, she had to do things differently than her predecessor Emile Roemer, who wanted to turn the SP into a governing party. Marijnissen had to give the party an activist and combative image again.
She had only been in the House of Representatives for ten months when she was chosen as party leader. Before that was the daughter of former SP leader Jan Marijnissen organizer in the care of the FNV trade union: a method to mobilize employees that came from the US.
After her first year as party leader, and her first election defeat, in the 2018 municipal elections, she said in NRC that she gives herself time. “The SP must grow in political relevance. That is not something of today or tomorrow, you have to build on it.” She promised better results, and she continued to do so. “I am very optimistic about our chances for the future,” she said after the 2021 House of Representatives elections, in which the party dropped from fourteen to nine seats.
SP members had different ideas about why Lilian Marijnissen did not appeal to voters. Some thought she was still too good. Others wanted Marijnissen to focus less on attacking other parties and more on expressing her own ideas. Still others had no idea what was wrong.
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Jimmy Dijk’s name is circulating in the SP as a promising successor to Marijnissen. He is a healthcare spokesperson and was campaign manager in the past elections. Sandra Beckerman, who became famous in the Groningen gas dossier, is also mentioned.
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