The ChristenUnie and the SGP still wanted to conduct European politics together in 2019, “led by the Word that has marked Europe for so many centuries”. That was stated in the – as it turns out – last joint election manifesto. At the next European elections, in 2024, the ChristenUnie and SGP will no longer form a joint list, the two parties announced earlier this month. It is a decision of the ChristenUnie: it thinks the substantive differences have become too great. The SGP regrets the break, also because the party could lose the only Brussels seat on its own.
The split puts an end to 38 years of European cooperation between ChristenUnie and SGP, and illustrates that both parties are growing apart. The message provoked mixed reactions in both parties, ranging from relief to disappointment.
Not unexpected
The end of a political marriage is never something to “cheer over”, says former Christian Union leader Leen van Dijke, but he wholeheartedly supports the decision. “You shouldn’t want to keep things together that don’t belong together anymore. The SGP has, certainly in Europe, taken a right-wing nationalist course and is still stuck in an old groove of Euroscepticism. If you don’t want a strong Europe in this time of war and crises, when will you?”
Keep seeing the similarities, says Rody van Heijst, chairman of youth club SGPJ. “The foundation of Europe, we both believe, is Christianity, but we live in a continent that is becoming more and more secular. Then you really need each other despite the differences.”
The end of the Brussels collaboration is not unexpected. After the last elections in 2019, the two MEPs, Peter van Dalen (ChristenUnie) and Bert-Jan Ruissen (SGP), already ended up in different European groups. Previously, they were still together with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), but when Forum for Democracy was allowed to become a member, Van Dalen left. He went to the European People’s Party (EPP), which also includes the CDA.
It sometimes seems as if the party thinks: if you throw enough money at it, it will be all right
Annelijne de Gier member SGP youth organization Perspectief
Ruissen remained a member of the ECR. It shows the different attitudes of the two parties towards populists, says philosopher Bas Hengstmengel, who wrote about the ideological history of the ChristenUnie in the collection The Left Church. “The SGP has welcomed FVD as a Christianity-friendly party, and also has good connections in Orbán’s Hungary. The ChristenUnie has more difficulty with that.”
According to the ChristenUnie, the formation of a political group played a role, but the growing substantive differences with the SGP are the most important. Vice-President Harmke Vlieg says that especially in the area of climate and migration policy “the differences have really widened”. Vlieg also calls the difference in voting behavior between Van Dalen and Ruissen “very significant”: out a data analysis of the Dutch daily newspaper of 2,300 votes in the first year of parliament, it appeared that the two politicians voted differently seven hundred times, or in almost a third of the cases. In addition to climate and migration, topics such as tackling Poland and Hungary or the European financing of a corona recovery fund were discussed.
The ChristenUnie in particular has moved up, says Hengstmengel. According to him, the ChristenUnie has not become so much more left-wing, but the party has started to profile itself more on topics that are seen as progressive, such as climate. The party has gone from “a very Eurocritical to a more pragmatic attitude”, says Hengstmengel.
‘A more realistic course’
Vice-chairman Vlieg agrees. “Climate is not a subject that you can tackle alone as a country, we have moved towards a more realistic course in that regard.” A factor in this is that the ChristenUnie has been responsible for government in The Hague for years. The party has to defend many compromises and is also bound by European rules and agreements within the coalition. The SGP sometimes fiercely opposes this, especially when it comes to nitrogen. During the recent farmers’ protest in Stroe, Member of Parliament Roelof Bisschop shared the stage with BBB, PVV, JA21, FVD and Wybren van Haga.
Within the ChristenUnie there is also criticism of the party’s pragmatic course. Annelijn de Gier, a member of the youth organization Perspectief, regrets the break with the SGP and believes that her own party on, for example, climate is too much in line with what she thinks is naive engineering thinking. “It sometimes seems as if the party thinks: if you throw enough money at it, it will be fine. I think the SGP has a more down-to-earth view on that.” Ultimately, the parties must be able to find each other on the Biblical mandate of ‘good care for creation’, thinks De Gier.
Locally, things often go very well between the two parties, sees SGP’er Arnoud Proos, who is an alderman on behalf of the SGP and ChristenUnie in Vlaardingen. In the municipal elections in March of this year, combined lists of ChristenUnie and SGP participated in 34 municipalities, slightly less than in 2018. In recent years, Proos has also been alderman for both parties in Barendrecht. “In the beginning I thought: I shouldn’t be a typical SGP alderman, but that was not difficult. I met a SGP member who was very focused on poverty and food banks, and someone from the Christian Union who strongly advocated Sunday rest. You would have expected that the other way around.”
Also read: Forum pushes ChristenUnie out of European political family (2019)
What Proos also really feels is the connection as Christians. “Starting a meeting together with prayer is the most beautiful thing there is.” It would also be his advice to the Brussels teams, Proost deeply regrets that there will no longer be a joint list. “Our motivations are deeply connected. Go for a walk for a week and open that Bible together again. Don’t try to compete with each other.”
The ChristenUnie emphasizes that separate European lists need not stand in the way of continued good cooperation on themes such as religious freedom and support for Israel. But the joint story has “become too thin”, says Vice-President Vlieg. “It’s good to be honest with the voter about that.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of July 27, 2022