The Drenthe Elderly Party (DOP) does not participate in the provincial elections after all. The party has managed to get too few statements of support. But there are still nineteen parties that will compete on March 15. Because a new party has been added at the last minute, that is Jesus Lives.
Nineteen parties is a record number in Drenthe. Sixteen parties participated in 2019. Of these, twelve eventually ended up in provincial councils.
There are currently thirteen factions in the Drents Parliament, as a result of party splits at PVV and Forum for Democracy. This afternoon at five o’clock, all participating parties and lists of candidates will be finalized by the central electoral committee in the provincial house.
At the end of December it was announced that DOP had also registered with the province for participation in the state elections on March 15. But DOP eventually has to drop out, says foreman Martin Hornis from Emmen, because they have only collected twenty statements of support from voters while thirty are needed. Without these written statements of support, the party will not be admitted to the elections. People from the elderly party are now talking to 50PLUS to further support them in the elections.
Jesus Lives registered at the last minute at the central electoral committee of the province as a new participating political party. The party was not active in Drenthe before, although Jesus Lives has been active for ten years, both nationally and in other provinces and municipalities. In total, Jesus Lives participates in nine provinces.
The party’s main program point is ‘Follow Jesus’. They are also for closing abortion clinics, banning drugs, removing the wolf, widening the N34, obligatory cows in the meadow for six months, and for free parking and public transport for pensioners. It has not yet been announced who will be the party leader in Drenthe.
Other newcomers with the elections in Drenthe are the BBB (BoerBurgerBeweging), BV NL (Belang van Nederland), Volt and Alliantie, a new political middle movement that believes that the established parties have failed in recent years on major issues such as the nitrogen and housing crisis .
50PLUS and SGP previously participated in the state elections in Drenthe. The SGP received too few votes for a seat in 2019. 50PLUS came up with one seat in the Drenthe Parliament, but former foreman Frank Duut soon resigned after a disagreement and took the seat with him. Duut first went to Sterk Lokaal, but now he is in the group at JA21.
By the way, more seats can be distributed in provincial councils on March 15. The Drenthe Parliament currently has 41 seats. But the province of Drenthe has more than 500,000 inhabitants as of September 1, and with that the province can soon expand the number of seats to 43. That expansion still has to be officially approved by the minister of the interior.