SP members don’t understand it. Finally everyone is talking about socialist themes such as poverty, redistribution and excessive market forces. But who benefits from those sentiments? Two former CDA members: Pieter Omtzigt (New Social Contract) and Caroline van der Plas (BBB), and GroenLinks-PvdA.
That feels double, say SP members on Saturday at the party conference of the Socialist Party in Arnhem. “It is very nice that attention is being paid to this,” says former party secretary Hans van Heijningen (70) during the break, in the empty concert hall of Musis Sacrum. “And it is unfortunate that the SP has little benefit from this for the time being.”
In the Peilingwijzer, a weighted average of several polls, the party has been declining for months and now has three to five seats: halving the nine seats that the Socialists now have in the House of Representatives. Ask SP members how this is possible, and there are external circumstances: voters are always running for a new political face, the polls have a self-reinforcing effect, and the media does not pay enough attention to SP party leader Lilian Marijnissen.
But, very cautiously, there is also some hope: if social security remains the buzzword of this campaign, then Marijnissen must be able to beat her competitors in TV debates, right? As Zutphen councilor Mart de Ridder says from the podium: “We are the original.”
Also read about the SP election programme: The SP has been trying to profile itself on social security for years, and voters have been running away from them for years
Marijnissen proclaimed the same message later that afternoon in her speech, which marked the start of the election campaign. “Subsistence,” said Marijnissen, “is the fire that politics itself has lit in recent years. While we tried to calm things down, they added fuel to the fire. And now they are screaming bloody murder to put out their own fire.”
It is up to the SP, said Marijnissen, “to ensure that the promise of social security is not the same empty promise as the promise of the new administrative culture. In the end, everyone talked about it, but nothing really changed.”
Struggle with migration
But just as attention to poverty and inequality has been increasing for several years, the decline of the SP has also been going on for some time. Since taking office in 2017, Lilian Marijnissen has lost six elections in a row.
“I don’t understand that either,” says Diny Hendriks (70) from Drachten in the foyer afterwards. Yet she saw it happen. “I have experienced people from the SP flying over to Forum for Democracy. And Geert Wilders is still scoring high.”
Also read: Thorbecke already knew: without social security, other policies are just ‘irony’
Migration, many conference attendees say, is a difficult subject for the SP. Maarten Boshove from Zwolle notices it when he goes door to door. “Then you stand talking and you think: here is a comrade in front of me. And then it ends with: all houses go to refugees.”
The SP talks little about asylum, preferring to profile itself with sharp positions on labor migration. Until a properly functioning permit system has been introduced to prevent abuses, no economic migrant may come to the Netherlands, the election manifesto states.
SP members are also divided on this. From the podium, Lesley Arp, a councilor in The Hague, argued that the SP should not focus on “people who are looking for a better life, but on the capitalist system that crushes them.” On behalf of four local departments, she defended a proposed change: there should not be a temporary stop for migrants, but their employers should be stopped. Companies that want to work predominantly with migrant workers may not obtain a new permit. A majority of the audience rejected the proposal, on the advice of the party leadership.
Competitor Omtzigt
Arp hopes that Marijnissen will stick firmly to the subject of social security in this campaign, she says during the break. “I think it’s a bit of an ugly word, but that’s what you seem to have to call it now.” The SP has sometimes “strategically diverted” to other issues during campaign times, says Arp. “But this is how we can distinguish ourselves.” Also towards Omtzigt, she thinks, who has made this term popular and is popular among former SP voters.
“Last week, Omtzigt voted against Jesse Klaver’s parliamentary motion to increase the minimum wage,” says Arp. “Then you see: he is on a completely different side. We can make that clear to the voter.” Omtzigt found financing the higher minimum wage risky: a heavier tax on companies could drive them abroad.
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In her speech, Marijnissen hardly opposed the popular Omtzigt, and even more so against GroenLinks-PvdA party leader Frans Timmermans, who also likes to talk about social security. She referred to his Brussels redundancy pay scheme, by joking that Heerlen now has “the most expensive flyer ever”.
She also opposed climate measures such as road pricing and a flight or meat tax. Ordinary citizens, the SP believes, should not notice anything about climate policy. “You can opt for ‘a better environment starts with your own measures’. But we choose climate justice. Where a better environment starts with Shell.”
Will Marijnissen still manage to surprise? Some SP members are happy if the party does not lose any seats. “I don’t expect a miracle,” says former party secretary Van Heijningen. “If the result is not too dramatic… Then it will not bring any disasters.”