Gerard van Hooft has been chosen as party leader of 50PLUS. The politician from Heusden was recently expelled from the party and thrown out by the police last week when he came to a members meeting uninvited. In an online meeting, a majority of members chose him on Saturday. He received 51 percent of the votes, while his opponent Ellen Verkoelen from Rotterdam remained stuck at 48 percent.
Last week, Van Hooft was taken away by the police from the party conference in Ede. He had been at odds with the board for some time. They believed that Verkoelen should become the party leader, but Van Hooft disagreed. The party had removed his membership, which was reversed by the judge. When he did appear at the meeting as an ‘opposing candidate’, things went wild.
The members meeting was canceled and continued online this Saturday. Van Hooft has now emerged as party leader after all. Cooling will not be on the candidate list. The list must be submitted to the Electoral Council no later than Monday.
‘Unusual way’
“I am very happy with this,” says Van Hooft. He acknowledges that he was chosen in an “unusual way.” “I hope that people will support the democratically elected list,” says Van Hooft.
There have been internal arguments at 50PLUS for years. The party won one seat in the 2021 House of Representatives elections, but after just over a month, Member of Parliament Liane den Haan continued as an independent faction. Party chairman Van den Herik announced last week that he is resigning from his position.
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