After twelve years of undisputed hegemony of Mark Rutte, the VVD is under pressure: government policy is still failing voters and the liberals are also suffering in the polls. Rutte’s own confidence figures are lower than ever. Internally, meanwhile, criticism is mounting about the party’s sometimes not so liberal course. Also recently, the burdens for entrepreneurs went up and an asylum deal was concluded in the government coalition that not all of the supporters can agree with. Nitrogen policy also raises major questions in many departments. Some of the members now openly refuse to act only as Rutte’s applause machine.
In the election for the new party chairman, for which about 25,000 VVD members can vote this week, the extent to which the candidates are able to resist national politicians and the course they chart for the VVD. The politics of The Hague is sometimes far too far removed from the wishes of the members, according to a growing squad.
Two competitors
This is precisely the reason why the initially slated winner of the presidential election – Onno Hoes, who has been designated as a favorite by the party leadership – has faced stiff competition from Brabant entrepreneur Eric Wetzels.
Although both candidates say they want to close the gap between party leaders and members, Wetzels seems especially popular with the most critical VVD members. Almost thirty local VVD party leaders have already open letter signed stating that they want Wetzels to be the new party chairman: ‘Eric is clearly a candidate from among the members.’
Wetzels, who was previously vice-chairman, is busy presenting that image of him as the ultimate member man. He now finds the party too much of a ‘clapping machine’ for Mark Rutte, says election pamphlet. ‘Our party needs a chairman who is mainly there for all members, and not just for politicians in The Hague,’ he says.
On the other hand, Onno Hoes – acting chairman since January – who has committed himself for many years to local politics in North Brabant and Limburg, but is still seen by some members as part of the party leadership, partly because he is the outspoken preferred candidate of the party board. Nevertheless, Hoes also opposes the establishment emphatically in his election campaign: ‘Politicians in The Hague must once again feel the hot breath of the members in the neck.’
More discussion
That is a new sound, after years in which the members’ need to oppose the party leadership was not so great. With the exception of a few outliers, they have mainly kept quiet since Mark Rutte recorded victory after victory in 2010. Open criticism of the party leader or the direction of the party was seen as electorally risky.
But now it also leads to growing concerns within its own ranks that there seems to be little left of the debating party that the VVD once was. Recently, Member of Parliament Daan de Neef resigned out of dissatisfaction with the party’s course, an action with which he underlined that VVD members no longer naturally follow Rutte. And shortly before the summer, the nitrogen policy led to a members’ revolt at congress.
The liberal youth movement also hopes for a new party chairman who will ensure that the VVD ‘again becomes a discussion party that goes back to the liberal core values’, says JOVD chairman Daphne Lodder. “We miss that now.” In their own words, the JOVD has no preferred candidate, but there is also a strong wish among them that the new party chairman will listen more often to the members – the young members, in their case.
Viewed in this way, the presidential election is in any case dominated by the (mild) rebellious feelings among VVD members. If Wetzels wins against Hoes, as some internal polls would indicate, he will become the first party chairman who is not nominated by the board, but by the members themselves. The party leadership will not necessarily be reassured about this. Small revolts sometimes want to grow into big revolutions. And major revolutions are by definition not good news for the incumbent.