A discussion within the rural GroenLinks/PvdA about support to Israel leads to the departure of Paola Vonk as chairman at GroenLinks Den Bosch. She says this on Facebook: “I think it’s an ink black weekend.”
Within GroenLinks/PvdA, the merger party in the making, the position of the Lower Chamber Group with regard to Israel has been discussed for days. A motion, earlier this week from MP Kati Piri, received criticism from the right -wing parties in parliament, but also from its own ranks. The discussion was continued on Saturday during the party congress in Nieuwegein.
In the end, the members voted in a large majority the call from the House of Representatives to temporarily stop the export from weapons to Israel. A motion in which a few PvdA prominents asked their party board to distance themselves from this much-discussed proposal was rejected. Party leader Frans Timmermans showed himself ‘grateful’ for the support.
“What a blamage, have I seen another congress?”
Vonk doesn’t understand anything, she says. “While my timeline is full of jubilant reports about that beautiful congress, I wonder if I have been watching a completely different congress.”
“What I saw was a party leader who is talking about each other and have an eye for the pain of someone else, but who does not intervene as party prominent people with visible and I hope to be abandoned and shouted.”
“What a blamage,” she continues her message. “And that for parties that say that solidarity and inclusion (equal treatment, ed.) To be of paramount importance.”
“I don’t feel at all embraced.”
Vonk has been chairman of GroenLinks since 2024, but she is now giving up: “I can no longer agree with or at this party. I do not feel at all embraced. That is why I will lay down my position as chairman of the Bossche GL department in the short term.”
The party itself has not yet responded to the announcement of Vonk.