The national board of the Party for the Animals (PvdD) should resign, according to the faction in the Drenthe Parliament.
“It is no longer possible with this board. It has made a huge mistake,” says party leader Renate Zuiker. She and her fellow party members signed the letter in which various local and regional departments call on the board to resign.
Damaging
The big mistake is that the board withdrew intended party leader for the House of Representatives elections Esther Ouwehand as a candidate and accused her of integrity violations. “They did this without prior research, which is extremely damaging.” Ouwehand was also party leader in 2021 and sits in the House of Representatives.
According to Zuiker, a new ad interim party board must be established as soon as possible to draw up a list of candidates. This should already be chosen at the next party congress on September 24. Zuiker himself is not available for this job. “I do not have time for that.”
In the background, the national party leadership wants to exert a lot of influence on the course taken by the elected representatives, Zuiker confirms. For example, the faction in Groningen experienced pressure not to join the municipal executive, which it eventually did.
“As members of Parliament, we are not going to sit in the council, because the views on agriculture and nature differ too far for that. But you can exert influence in municipalities by doing so.” According to Zuiker, the original founders still have a lot of influence on the board. “They have to accept that times are changing and that we don’t want to be in opposition forever.”