GreenLeft

Groen Links ( GL) is a green party in the Netherlands. It was officially formed in 1990 through a merger of four parties, the communistic Partij van Nederland from 1909/1919, the Pacifistisch Socialist Party ( PSP) in 1957, the Politieke Partij Radicals (PPR ) of 1968 and the Evangelical Volkspartij of 1981.

Groen Links has been present since the party's founding of the Second Chamber, but has not yet achieved any government involvement. At European level, the Party of the European Green Party belongs to.

History

As early as 1984 had three parties presented a joint election list in the European elections to counter the decline in elections. 1989 in the parliamentary elections (Second Chamber) came the EPP added as a fourth. At that time, the electoral coalition won six seats of 150 The four parties were:

• The former Stalinist communistic Partij van Nederland, founded as SDP in 1909, had made ​​a certain opening in the 1980s and accepted feminism as equal ideology and communism. During that decade, they continuously lost members and 1986, their last parliamentary mandate.
• The Pacifistisch Socialist Party in 1957 emerged as a reservoir for disillusioned communists and social democrats, left Christians and anarchists who opposed, for example, NATO and wanted to go a third way. In the elections of 1986, the PSP of three fell back to a seat.
• Leftist groups from the Katholieke Volkspartij formed in 1968 Politieke Partij radicals. In 1981, she was guided by enhanced left and green and could defend its two seats in the elections in 1986.
• The Evangelical Volkspartij was founded in 1981 by Christian left. She stood for pacifism, social justice and progressivity (eg in relation to euthanasia and homosexuality). In their short history they had won only a single seat in 1982 in the Second Chamber.

The best ever election result achieved Groen Links in 1998 with 11 seats and a voting share of 7.3%. Since the election of 9 June 2010, the party was represented by 10 deputies in the Second Chamber of the States General. In the European Parliament, it has three representatives.

Since its inception, the party has not participated in any government coalition. Only in the province of North Holland, one of their strongholds, Groen Links staffed regional offices of state. At the 2010 elections, they showed explicitly interested in a government participation.

Group leaders was from 2002 to 2010 Femke Halsema, under whose leadership seemed Groen Links, which at times had more than 25,000 members, to give a more left- liberal profile. At European level, the party but an integral part of the green mergers remains (including GL heard as the next to continue existing party De Groenen the alliance was founded in 2004 to EGP ).

After Halsemas withdrawal from the Second Chamber in late 2010 Jolanda Sap took over the group's presidency and led the party as a top candidate in the early elections in 2012, where Groen Links suffered heavy losses and was only four seats; this is the smallest green left Parliament group in the Second Chamber of the history of the party. Less than four weeks after the election defeat forced the party leadership Jolanda Sap to resign. Shortly after, the entire board resigned to allow a fresh start .. The leading role in the party, the faction leader Bram van Ojik held since October 2012.

The youth organization of Groen Links called abeam.

Policy program

The party combines green and left targets. These include:

• Protecting the planet and ecosystems and animal welfare
• Equitable distribution of natural resources between all citizens of the world and all generations
• Equitable income distribution
• Ability to work, care, education and recreation for everyone
• Pluralistic society, in which everyone can participate

Election results

Well-known politicians

• Britta Böhler
• Femke Halsema
• Farah Karimi
• Paul Rosenmöller