D66 MP Salima Belhaj is standing as a candidate for leading the list in next year’s European elections. In a letter to her party members she writes on Friday that she now wants the “strong social-liberal sound” that she has made in Rotterdam and The Hague to be heard in the past fifteen years “to be heard loud and clear in Europe”. Belhaj (44) has been a Member of Parliament since 2016 and has been leading the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the Supplements scandal since last year. She wants to complete that research before she possibly leaves for Brussels next year.
If several candidates report, the members of the D66 can choose the leader. Various sources within D66 confirm that Belhaj has been asked by the party’s top to stand as a candidate.
At the party conference of D66 on Saturday in Amsterdam, the profile sketch for the upcoming European party leader, which has been drawn up by the party board, will be discussed. This shows that the party wants to make serious efforts to better guarantee social safety within the organisation. In recent years, D66 has struggled with various integrity issues involving prominent party officials.
Example function
Unlike in 2019, the profile this time asks for much more than just political competences. Skills are also explicitly requested as an ’employer of the D66 delegation staff’, including ‘motivating and coaching a team’ and ‘creating a team spirit in a safe working environment’.
This means that one potential candidate does not seem to qualify. It is widely suspected within the party that current MEP Samira Rafaela has the ambition to become party leader next year as well. But the official warning that Rafaela received last year for transgressive behavior within the D66 group in Brussels has not yet been removed.
The integrity issue with Samira Rafaela (34) that played a year ago is still not resolved. Rafaela received a warning from the party board in May after three former employees had filed complaints against her about abuse of power, bullying, intimidation and threats, which the internal Integrity Investigations Committee had upheld. The board was of the opinion that Rafaela “has dropped significant stitches that are not in line with the exemplary function that a D66 representative has”.
Rafaela was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 with preferential votes. During that campaign she felt opposed by the then party leadership, who openly supported another candidate.
The Commission of Inquiry previously established that Rafaela had created an “unsafe work situation” for the three employees involved. Within D66, the demands placed on the next party leader are seen as an attempt to disqualify Samira Rafaela. “This profile was written to exclude Samira,” says a party official. He also sees putting Belhaj forward as a candidate party leader as an attempt “to get rid of Samira”.
No rehabilitation
Other sources around the top of D66 confirm that the party board does not want Samira to run for office as long as the warning has not been withdrawn. The board has made rehabilitation conditional on Rafaela acknowledging her transgressive behavior and apologizing to the three victims. Negotiations about the form and content of such a conversation came to nothing. Earlier attempts at mediation between the party board and the MEP also failed in July last year.
Although Rafaela successfully appealed the warning she received a year ago, the board has refused to withdraw it. The disputes panel of D66 then ruled that the investigation into Rafaela’s misconduct had been ‘careless’ on a number of points. In terms of content, the Disputes Board did not rule on the case, only procedurally.
When asked, Rafaela does not want to say whether she intends to run for party leader next year.
Deflation in parliamentary group
In the profile sketch, the party also requests “experience in managerial positions” and “proven leadership and management skills” from the upcoming list leader. Given her experience, this seems more applicable to Salima Belhaj, ten years her senior. She has been a member of the House of Representatives since 2016 and was chairperson of the Rotterdam city council in the years 2008-2016.
If Belhaj does indeed go to Brussels next year, the 24-member House of Representatives will see another member leave. At the beginning of June, Paul van Meenen will become party leader in the Senate. Marijke van Beukering has been appointed mayor of Nieuwegein.