Lilianne Ploumen resigns immediately as party leader of the PvdA and as a member of parliament. She has that Tuesday morning via Twitter announced. The politician believes that the party leadership “does not suit her well”. By also resigning as a Member of Parliament, Ploumen wants to prevent her from becoming a “former leader” who “gets in the way of the faction” and its successor.
In a declaration says 59-year-old Ploumen that she does not master enough facets of party leadership. During debates, she would not be distinctive and adept enough. She would not lead the party in developing ideas in themes in which she feels less at home. “That’s why I’m stepping back.”
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“I am proud of what I have accomplished,” writes Ploumen. As examples, she cites “the progress for women to make decisions about their own bodies” and “the change towards a fairer clothing industry.” She also says that the collaboration between the PvdA and Groenlinks — of which Ploumen was once a member — will continue to “deepen and broaden”. During her period as party leader, Ploumen ensured more intensive cooperation between the two left-wing parties.
PvdA ‘surprised’
In January last year, Ploumen took over the party leadership of the PvdA from Lodewijk Asscher, who resigned because of his role as minister in the benefits scandal. Afterwards, she was also elected political leader of the party. In the parliamentary elections of 2021, she managed to retain the nine seats from 2017. The number of local PvdA seats also remained about the same in recent municipal elections, although the party almost doubled in seats in Amsterdam and became the largest party again for the first time in twelve years.
The PvdA is “surprised” by the sudden departure of Ploumen, party chairman Esther-Mirjam Sent said in a response. on the website of the party. “We respect Lilianne’s choice and we are extremely grateful to her for all the years in which she has committed herself to our party.” According to Sent, the PvdA will elect a new party chairman “in the short term”. GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver, with whom Ploumen has worked a lot, calls her on Twitter his “political buddy”.
Correction (April 12, 2022): An earlier version of this message stated that Ploumen will stop as party leader. That had to be party leader. That has been corrected above.