Members of the House of Representatives of the CDA are very dissatisfied with the cabinet members of their own party. Insiders report that NRC. On Monday, the long-simmering dissatisfaction was expressed in an extra group meeting, which was organized to discuss the election defeat suffered by the CDA last week.
The meeting had lasted a long time and had been “sometimes emotional”, said party chairman Pieter Heerma on Tuesday. According to him, the results of the provincial elections show that there is a gulf between The Hague and the rest of the country, but also between CDA members in The Hague and party members in the rest of the country.
The gap he did not mention, but which seems to have deepened after the elections: that between the CDA faction and the CDA squadron of the cabinet.
CDA MPs have felt for some time that they are limited in the way they can do their work. The coalition they are part of, with VVD, D66 and ChristenUnie, was never born of love – it was the result of a record-long formation, characterized by mutual distrust. The parties are condemned to each other, trust never seems to have been there. In order not to jeopardize this shaky relationship, CDA party members are told that they must stick to the coalition line.
Annoyance
MPs have only seen their party lose since then: first in last year’s municipal elections and last week, the CDA almost halved its number of seats in the Provincial Council. In the group, annoyance has arisen about the CDA cabinet members. They could at least adopt a more assertive attitude, it is said, and tell the CDA story better. If the faction is not allowed to do that and the cabinet does not do it, who is still involved in profiling the CDA?
A concrete example is the story that the faction presented in February, ‘For the whole of the Netherlands’. This contains an explanation of regional inequality and plans to combat it. Party members saw in the campaign that the ministers who sit in the cabinet on behalf of their party did little or nothing with it, while the CDA does have the portfolios that touch on the problems that the party has identified. Karien van Gennip is the minister responsible for social inequality. Vivianne Heijnen is the State Secretary responsible for infrastructure. Hanke Bruins Slot is the Minister of the Interior.
No room to take a stand
The faction does not know what to do with the election defeat. It calls for a clear answer, it is argued, but CDA members do not feel the space to take a firm position. In the extra group meeting on Monday, the intention to claim that space was heard. And also that the cabinet is on the move.
Nevertheless, for some, this call is accompanied by a feeling of uncertainty about the ability of CDA ministers to be able to put the CDA story in the spotlight when the cabinet discusses the consequences of BBB’s election win for nitrogen policy. Wopke Hoekstra and CDA minister Hugo de Jonge have made it clear that something will have to change in that policy. What – they leave that in the middle.
In the meeting, the question of whether Wopke Hoekstra can stay on as party leader was raised several times by MPs. A number of them are now wondering aloud whether the CDA can find its way back up with Hoekstra as party leader. In the meeting they heard what has been heard behind the scenes for some time: there is no alternative, a leadership change increases the unrest and the party must now focus on the content first.
The question is how tenable that answer to Hoekstra’s criticism is. The CDA association council will meet again on Tuesday evening, for the second time within a week. On Friday, the council, which includes provincial department chairmen, Wopke Hoekstra, Pieter Heerma and party leader in the Senate Ben Knapen, had already discussed the election defeat online. Even then, doubts were expressed about Hoekstra’s leadership. Tuesday night, before the talk, it doesn’t look like he’ll have to leave in a hurry. Earlier in the day, Pieter Heerma said that Wopke Hoekstra can stay on, as far as the faction is concerned.
What has become noticeable after the elections: when CDA members talk about the future of their party leader in background discussions, they now invariably use the word ‘provisional’. It seems to be ruled out that he will become party leader again in a new election.