Party for the Animals

The Partij voor de Dieren (German Party for the Animals ), PvdD, is a political party in the Netherlands. The PvdD was founded in October 2002. The guided by Marianne Thieme organization currently has about 12,250 members. The party headquarters is located in Amsterdam.

Political orientation

The primary objective of the party is to anchor in the Dutch constitution animal rights and eliminate abuses, for example in industrial animal husbandry or fisheries, and to limit the possibilities for animal experiments. Critics complain that the party only these have a message. In fact, the election program are only vague references to other points of view. Thus, the animal rights activists want to make the privatization of energy companies reversed and entrepreneurs three years save taxes. They advocate a more generous asylum policy. In the political spectrum of the Netherlands PvdD can be located more to the left. Prior to the formation of a government in late 2006 Marianne Thieme had indicated their willingness to support a (then only theoretically conceivable ) center-left coalition of PvdA, Democraten 66, Groen Links, ChristianUnion and SP. During a recent study, the positions of most Dutch parties have shifted in recent years to the right, this can not be determined for the PvdD.

The PvdD also supports demonstrations against factory farming under the motto we zijn het MEGA zat in Amsterdam. The demonstrations are based on similar events under the slogan We are tired of it! in Germany.

Character of the party

The PvdD is a closed party in the sense that its members congresses are not open to the public. Thieme said in an interview in 2010, in the rush of the foundation they have received this recommendation when first best notary; later, the members would have had the desire to maintain control. She calls her a party getuigenispartij (about: commitment Party), which is why they ask so many questions in Parliament. " We are committed not warrant, nine out of ten people to achieve, but to reach the people who want to be not nine out of these ten. "

The PvdD participated for the first time in January 2003 in the election to the Second Chamber of the States General, but missed with a voting share of 0.5 % a seat In the European elections in 2004, it achieved 3.2% of the vote.

In the 2006 general election, the party won 1.8% of the votes and two seats ( Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand ) a place in the Second Chamber, making it the world's first represented in a national parliament Animal Protection Party. During the campaign, among others, the writer Harry Mulisch and Maarten 't Hart had supported the PvdD.

In the elections to the Provinciale Staten ( Provincial Assemblies ) on March 7, 2007, the PvdD was able to record with a score of 2.5% nationally and ordered another success in the provincial parliaments a total of nine deputies. Based on this result, the PvdD is also represented by a member of the First Chamber since 31 May 2007. In the next elections on March 2, 2011, the voting share of the party fell to 1.9 %, two seats in the provincial assemblies were lost. However, the mandate of the First Chamber was maintained.

In the European elections of 2009, the party again failed, despite a slight increase to 3.5% of the catchment in the EU Parliament.

In the local elections in March 2010, the PvdD ran in only six cities; in each of them ( including Amsterdam and The Hague), the party gained one seat each.

In the 2010 general election the PvdD lost about a third of its voters in 2006, but was able to defend their two mandates scarce. Also in the early parliamentary elections in September 2012, the PvdD could keep their two mandates (plus 0.6 percent).

In March 2014, the party was able to double in the municipal elections, the number of their mandates and now features in a dozen cities or municipalities each have a seat