5 months Ago
What Has Been Decided, and What Happens Now?
Two crucial choices were taken. First, both sides will appear on the ballot again, together this time, under the GroenLinks-PvdA banner, as they did in 2023. That part of the ruling was largely unchallenged. Second, 105,000 party members were polled on whether the two parties should formally merge into a new single political party by 2026. The vast majority said yes.
This doesn’t mean, however, that the new party is official yet. Leaders had even before the vote confirmed that GroenLinks-PvdA would stand in the next election on October 29 regardless of the outcome. While some other new parties have been formed overnight — such as NSC in 2023 — this case is not about creating a new party, but a union of two existing parties.
Construction of the New Party and Leader’s Election
One-way moves toward a single party involve legal and organizational shifts. The 2 parties now have independent offices in The Hague and Utrecht, respectively, which will have to be merged. New laws will have to be drafted, systems merged, and a new name and logo chosen. There are reports that Timmermans already has a candidate in mind but so far there has been no announcement.
It is only after the new party is formally formed that both the existing parties will be completely disbanded. For PvdA, the moment must also be particularly emotional with it being 80 next year.
Where once leaders commonly used “merger,” they now call the outcome a “new party,” suggesting a reset. In practice, however, it will operate as a merger. Members will not need to reapply; they will be moved automatically to the new party.
The intention behind the move is obvious: both GroenLinks and PvdA think they can offer more as a joint force. In the previous elections, neither party was able to grow big enough on its own — the PvdA won 9 seats in 2017 and 2021 and GroenLinks won 14 and then 8. But when they worked together in 2023, they won 25 seats, becoming the second-largest party, behind Geert Wilders’ PVV.
Frans Timmermans, who was at the helm of the joint campaign in 2023, is likely to stay on as party leader. While he is not universally accepted inside the two parties, there is no apparent alternate choice. A decision is expected to be made next week, candidates have until Friday at 10 a.m. to apply.
