The Greens
De Groenen
ChairpersonAngela Zikking (acting)[1]
Founded17 December 1983 (1983-12-17)
HeadquartersDe Groenen
Oudegracht 60
NL-3511 AS Utrecht
IdeologyGreen politics
Political positionCentre-left
European affiliationEuropean Green Party
International affiliationGlobal Greens
European Parliament groupThe Greens–European Free Alliance
ColoursGreen
Seats in the House of Representatives
0 / 150
Seats in the Senate
0 / 75
States-Provincial
0 / 566
Amstel, Gooi en Vecht Water Board
1 / 26
Website
www.degroenen.nl

The Greens (DG, De Groenen) is a political party in the Netherlands. It advocates for Green politics, an unconditional basic income and emphasises its anti-militarism.

History

A group of Dutch environmentalists led by Marten Bierman founded The Greens on 17 December 1983. They entered the European elections under the name "European Greens" since the name "The Greens" was controlled by Bas de Gaay Fortman. The party's foundation was supported by the Francophone Belgian green party Ecolo, while the German Greens supported the Green Progressive Accord. The party became involved in the formation of the Coordination of European Green Parties. It won 1.3% of vote in the 1984 European parliament election below the threshold of 4% for a seat.

For the 1986 national elections the party used now the name "The Greens" which was abandoned. With Marten Bierman as top-candidate it won 0.2% of the votes, below the threshold of 0.7% for a seat. The party had a federal structure consisting of provincial parties. In 1987 The Greens participated in the North Holland, South Holland and Gelderland provincial elections. They won one seat on the States of North Holland, partially because of the support of Green Amsterdam led by Roel van Duijn. On March 10, 1989 Green Amsterdam merged with The Greens.

In 1989 GroenLinks was formed by a merger of PPR, PSP, CPN and the Christian left Evangelical People's Party. The Greens rejected to join the merger because it emphasised social-economic issues too much and environmental issues too little. Independently, they participated in the 1989 elections with Roel van Duijn as their top candidate. The party won 0.35% of votes, below the threshold. The party abandoned its federal structure in 1992.

For the Dutch general election of 1994, GroenLinks proposed a candidate chosen by The Greens on place 10 on their list, but this was rejected by The Green's Congress. The party entered the election with Hein Westerouen van Meeteren as top-candidate and won 0.2% of vote. In the 1994 municipal elections the party expanded its number of seats and won seats in Leiden, Nijmegen, Zwolle and Amsterdam. In 1991 GroenLinks MEP Herman Verbeek left his party and continued as an independent. He became a member of The Greens in 1994 and led their European list in the European Parliament election. The party won 2.36% of vote, below the threshold.

In 1995 the party contested several provincial elections. It won seats in North Holland and South Holland (on a combined GroenLinks/The Greens list). The party cooperated with several provincial parties to form a common list for the indirect elections for the Senate by the States-Provincial. The first seat was taken by the "Federation of Frisian Municipal-interest Parties" and the second by Marten Bierman. Bierman was elected by preference votes. He formed a separate Independent Senate Fraction, a novelty in Dutch politics. Before no group had previously had representation in the Senate without also being present in the House of Representatives. In the 1998 elections the party participated with Jaap Dirkmaat as top-candidate and won 0.2% of the votes. The party did keep its seats in municipal councils and expanded to Haarlem, Zeist, Arnhem, Groningen and Haren.

The Greens have not participated in the Dutch general elections since 1998. The party received 0.19% of the vote in the European elections of 2009 and 0.23% of the vote in the European elections of 2014.

By 2017 the party was split into two conflicting groups both claiming legitimacy with the total party membership being 33. One faction held a congress with 10 attendees which elected Otto ter Haar party leader.[2]

House of Representatives

The Greens have participated in five elections, failing to pass the threshold of 0,67 percent on each occasion.

House of Representatives

Election Lijsttrekker Votes  % Seats +/– Government
1986 Marten Bierman 18,641 0.20
0 / 150
 New Extra-parliamentary
1989 Roel van Duijn 31,312 0.35
0 / 150
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
1994 Hein Westerouen van Meeteren 13,902 0.15
0 / 150
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
1998 Jaap Dirkmaat 16,585 0.19
0 / 150
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
2021 Otto ter Haar 119 0.00
0 / 150
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
2023[lower-alpha 1] Mark van Treuren 9,117 0.09
0 / 150
 Steady 0 Extra-parliamentary
  1. ↑ Run in a joint list with PPNL.

European Parliament

The Greens is a founding party of the European Green Party.[3]
The Greens participated since 1984 five times in the European elections.

Election year List # of
overall votes		  % of
overall vote		 # of
overall seats won		 +/– Notes
1984 List 67,413 1.27 (#8)
0 / 25
 New
1994 List 97,206 2.35 (#7)
0 / 31
 New
2009 List 8,517 0.19 (#14)
0 / 25
 new
2014 List 10,883 0.23 (#14)
0 / 26
 Steady 0
2019 List 9,546 0.17 (#15)
0 / 26
 Steady 0

States-Provincial

The Greens have been elected in the States of North Holland between 1987 and 2003, South Holland (1995–1999) and Gelderland (1995–2003).

Municipal councils

The Greens have been elected in the municipal councils of Amsterdam, Leiden, Zwolle, Nijmegen, Haarlem and Haren.

Water boards

In March 2015 The Greens were elected to the water board of Amstel, Gooi en Vecht with 23,604 votes (5.9%).[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "addressen" [addresses]. De Groenen (in Dutch).
  2. ↑ "REPORT - Scouting mission to Netherlands/De Groenen 17/18th March 2017, Amsterdam/Rotterdam" (PDF). European Greens. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 10, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Green Parties". European Greens.
  4. ↑ "election result AGV". www.agv.nl (in Dutch).
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