CDJA has doubts about Hoekstra as party leader

“In the past it was always seen as a threat, we were in danger of becoming irrelevant. Wednesday was the day on which we were able to determine: from now on the CDA is no longer relevant.” It is the day after the elections for the Provincial Council and Kevin Klinkspoor, the chairman of the CDJA, is concerned about the continued existence of the CDA and has doubts about the leadership of Wopke Hoekstra. Vice President Derek Groot, next to him, too. “Difficult themes are avoided at the top of the party,” he says. “As if it is hoped that for magical reasons in 2025, when the elections for the House of Representatives are scheduled, we will suddenly win.”

If there is one thing that characterizes the political youth organization of the CDA, it is that CDJA members are not very vocally opposed to their mother party. But after Wednesday night everything is different. The CDA is, after the Forum for Democracy, the biggest loser. In terms of votes, the Christian Democrats have almost halved.

Groot: “The continued existence of the party must be discussed. Before we disappear.”

Klinkspoor: “We are disappointed with this result. Yesterday I had contact with our youth candidates, there is one in every province. They didn’t make it. It was not due to their efforts.”

Groot: “We lost with the parliamentary elections, the municipal elections and now again. It’s not because of the enthusiasm in our party. Certainly not the ideas, the ideology. But is what we stand for still consistent with what we do? What gains do we make on the topics that are important to us? That is what is missing at the CDA: we try to find something about everything. And in the end we find nothing. I think voters are affected by that. Don’t blame them.”

Klinkspoor: “When we talk about urgency, about innovation, sticking to a story and executing it consistently, then Wopke [Hoekstra, partijleider, red.] also a task to carry it out better. I hear around me: it does not come across as he brings it.”

Groot: “People have a certain idea about how you come across, what you radiate. I don’t think it’s necessarily about debating skills or whatever with Wopke, he has improved in that. He has to look at how he can get rid of that consultant image.”

Klinkspoor: “Is it convincing if a consultant explains to you that he wants to offer you a social perspective, that you are entitled to a permanent job, a house to buy, and that he will fight for it?”

Klinkspoor: “How long has the CDA been governing? We have only been in opposition three times since we existed. Well, pooh pooh”

Groot: “It is positive that he did not say, just like after the loss in the municipal elections, that we have beaten the polls.”

Klinkspoor: “After the loss in the municipal elections, you saw that everyone was leaning back a bit. There was the idea that yes, if we continue like this it will be fine. So it just doesn’t happen.”

Groot: “If someone is unable to make a profit three times, will it succeed the fourth time?”

Klinkspoor: “BBB attracts voters from us, but also from VVD and PVV. I notice that I get excited when they start talking about the bus line, nearby amenities. But I also think: hell, this is the CDA story. And apparently, that is because of the person, it comes across to Caroline van der Plas.”

Groot: “What they do much better, or what we do too little, is that they just tell it like it is. They do not express ‘intentions’ and ‘directions’ there. They are concrete.”

Klinkspoor: „Such a story as the party presented in February, ‘For the whole of the Netherlands’, everyone in the party is enthusiastic about. It’s a long-winded story, and that’s good. But we are not also concerned with the question of whether we will still exist in 2025. To put it in an exaggerated way: maybe we don’t have much time left.”

Groot: “I think it is quite clear that there is a gap between the CDA and society. If you claim to be a people’s party, or are in the base, and you get five seats in the European Championship, with less than 7 percent of the vote.”

Klinkspoor: “There is a time of governing and a time of opposition. Yes, it would be good to spend some healthy time in the opposition to have the space to work out our plans. And then there will be another time coalition. How long has the CDA been governing? We have only been in opposition three times since we existed. Well, poo poo.”

Groot: “There is a difference between adding a little water to the wine and adding a little wine to the water. We do the latter. Our story must be number one. If we see that cabinet participation has too much influence on being able to propagate this, we must dare to make the choice to say that the story is more important to us than co-government.”

Klinkspoor: “And that has not been done in the past 1.5 years.”

Groot: “That is why we now want to send such a clear signal to our parent party. If it doesn’t work because the party leader can’t get it in front of the stage and gets in the way of the story, or because we’re in a cabinet where our hands are tied, then someone else has to carry it out, and then we have to do it from a different position. politics.”

Klinkspoor: “We have tried to convey our concerns internally. With the party chairman and the board.”

Groot: “We hear that we don’t have to worry, that it will be all right, that the story of the CDA is standing. That we should just be excited. But if people don’t know what we stand for, we can be as enthusiastic as we want, then we won’t exist anymore.”