Jimmy Dijk is the new party leader of the SP. The party has that announced on Wednesday. He succeeds Lilian Marijnissen, who announced last Saturday that she would resign immediately as party leader after a disappointing election result.
The 38-year-old Dijk has been in the House of Representatives since April this year, but has been affiliated with the SP for thirteen years. Dijk has been a member of the Groningen municipal council since 2010 and has been group leader there since 2013. Dijk was campaign manager during the past elections.
Dijk responded in a press release: “It is a great honor that I have been given the confidence to lead this faction. We have a lot to do in the near future. Wilders’ PVV continues to fight with the VVD. They continue to create distinctions between people based on origin and do not want to crack the contradiction between the working class and the grabbing class.”
Lilian Marijnissen took office as a Member of Parliament in 2017 and also became party leader and faction leader in the House of Representatives for the SP that year. The party went from nine to five seats in the past elections; the seventh election in a row that the party lost under Marijnissen’s government.
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