The VVD members are trying to make things right with each other again and the party hopes that their new Liberal Manifesto, which was presented at the party conference this Saturday, will help with this. In the Fokker Terminal in The Hague it was all about the liberal core values and the members had discussed them extensively in various online sessions recently. The outcome: a compromise.
Ever since the departure of Mark Rutte as party leader in 2023 and the succession by Dilan Yesilgöz, there has been an intense debate in the VVD about the direction. The party made a move to the right by governing with the PVV. Critics, such as the group De Liberale VVD, wrote in a statement at the end of 2024 that the VVD “has become part of a populist politics”. The choice to collaborate with the PVV, and the way in which it was designed, led to the feeling among the more progressive wing in the party that the liberal core values were under serious pressure.
In the autumn of 2024, a special committee started working on a draft text for a new Liberal Manifesto, which replaces the 2005 manifesto. And in the draft version it initially seemed that the progressive critics were getting their way. The manifesto called tolerance “indispensable”, stating that liberal society is characterized by “plurality and diversity” and must protect minorities against the power of the majority. Newcomers “bring new perspectives and ideas” and can “enrich the Netherlands in many ways,” according to the draft text.
Nothing to worry about
But that passage was a sore spot for the right wing of the VVD and led to numerous amendments. Ibo Gülsen, former councilor in The Hague and involved in the right-wing conservative pressure group Classical Liberal, was annoyed by the text. “It actually said: there is nothing wrong, migrants are an enrichment. While they also bring many problems with them that we have to set limits on.”
And so the part about tolerance and newcomers was seriously adjusted on points. It still says that pluralism can enrich society, but it goes on to say that this can also “create friction if parts of our society do not share democratic values or make excessive demands on social services.”
The atmosphere in the party was “less pleasant” a year and a half ago
The old manifesto had 75 pages, the new one only 27. The new text is much more ideological and outlines, and contains fewer practical policy proposals. Furthermore, the shift in themes is striking. In 2005, as a result of the Fortuyn revolt, there was a lot of attention for democratic innovation, but themes such as climate and certainly artificial intelligence were still completely missing.
Out of the bend
The youth organization JOVD presented its own political program last Thursday, ‘About a liberal Netherlands in 2050’. As is often the case, the JOVD is kicking against sacred cows within the party, for example by advocating the complete abolition of mortgage interest deduction, which the VVD has actually prevented in the current coalition with D66 and CDA. Another far-reaching proposal is to abolish the AOW as national insurance in 2050, while the government is already having difficulty reforming the AOW at all. Party chairman Ruben Brekelmans said on Thursday that the JOVD can “press the accelerator a little harder in political discussions, but sometimes also goes off the rails.”
JOVD chairman Friso van Gruijthuijsen thinks the new Liberal Manifesto is “a really liberal piece,” he says. But he still lacks “concretization”. “That is where the differences in the party become exciting, and their translation into proposals and choices becomes crucial.”
At the conference on Saturday, VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz will deliver a message that is intended to match the optimism in the new manifesto. According to her, the Netherlands must start thinking bigger and rely on its “ingenuity” to be “the most innovative economy in the world” by 2040. Countries that successfully apply artificial intelligence (AI) will dominate the global economy, party chairman Ruben Brekelmans predicts shortly afterwards. “If we seize that opportunity, we don’t have to worry about AI jobs disappearing, because then we will create just as many or even more.”
The end of the afternoon seems to be exciting around a current motion about Israel. A group of critical members want the VVD faction to condemn much more strongly the law with which the Israeli government recently introduced the death penalty for Palestinians. The motion, which states that the VVD “applies its liberal and moral principles selectively” when it comes to Israel, was co-signed by former party leaders Jozias van Aartsen and Ed Nijpels.
Member of Parliament Nicole Maes, who previously did not want to condemn Israel’s death penalty law in a House of Representatives debate, now does so at the congress. Although Maes says that the cabinet must have diplomatic space to discuss this with Israel, she also says that the VVD “condemns the death penalty always and everywhere.” The initiators are content with it, there will be no vote. Liberal unity has been temporarily restored.