The membership numbers of GroenLinks and PvdA have increased considerably in the past year. This is evident from the annual declarations by the parties of their membership numbers to the Documentation Center for Dutch Political Parties (DNPP) of the University of Groningen.
The PvdA grew by more than 10 percent to just under 44,000 members. This puts it in second place, followed by GroenLinks, which rose by more than 20 percent to 41,000 members. The two left-progressive parties have not fully merged, but form a joint faction in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The left-wing parties attribute their membership growth to the enthusiasm about cooperation between the parties. That explanation is “very plausible,” thinks Gerrit Voerman, director of the DNPP and professor at the University of Groningen. According to him, what could also have brought additional members to the left-wing parties is the victory of the PVV. That also happened in 2002, when the radical right-wing populist party LPF won the House of Representatives elections, says Voerman. Such a right-wing election result scares many left-wing voters. “Then they think: if the right becomes so strong, it is important that the left also receives the necessary support.”
Marginalization
If the collaboration between GroenLinks and PvdA results in a full merger, the combined party will be the largest in the Netherlands with more than 84,000 members. This is currently Forum for Democracy with 62,000 members. The high membership of FVD is striking, given that the party only has three seats in the House of Representatives. The feeling of marginalization that many FVD voters experience, for example when they are dismissed as a “wappie” or conspiracy theorist, plays a major role in the party’s high membership, according to Voerman. The feeling of exclusion promotes solidarity, which attracts members. In addition to FVD, the Party for the Animals also has a relatively high membership (30,000) compared to its three seats in the Chamber.
The fact that the membership ratios are different from those in the House is also visible in the VVD. The party that had the largest faction in the House of Representatives over the past ten years has dropped by 5.6 percent to 22.5 thousand members – about half of the PvdA. This puts the VVD in tenth place.
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Of all parties, JA21’s membership dropped the most, at 22 percent. This is followed by 50PLUS (-12.3 percent) and CDA (-6.9 percent). For the CDA, traditionally a large membership party, this means a loss of approximately two thousand members. This now brings the membership to less than 30,000.
The combined membership of all parties increased by 3.5 percent last year to more than 390 thousand, about three percent of the number of eligible voters. At the beginning of 2021, this was still 2.4 percent. Voerman concludes: “It is good that it is increasing.”