Next Dutch Election, pick your poison!

[DavidB.]

Ideally something between Labour and the Socialists but, since that seems not to exist, the Socialists.

GroenLinks might be an option for you. Their new leader Jesse Klaver is clearly to the left of Labour and will make the party more "watermelon" style (as opposed to the "social liberal" D66-light style Femke Halsema turned the party into).

I'd vote for VNL, "For the Netherlands".

[DavidB.]

D66 - party for western Ukrainians, very elitist, plays for the urban liberal crowd. Especially dislikes former governing party CDA and loathes their opposites the PVV. Staunch social liberals, extreme Eurofederalists and pro-nuke environmentalists.

GreenLeft - merger of various New Left and BRTD-Christian groups to form standard left-leaning Greens. Have adopted a more left-leaning platform (basic income etc.) after their widely panned collaboration with the Rutte I cabinet. Internationalists but soft Eurosceptics.

D66 isn't pro-nuke. Officially, they're not against it, but in practice, they would probably not support new nuclear power plants.

GL isn't "soft Eurosceptical" at all - it's only "Eurosceptical" in the sense that it thinks the EU should be federalized asap, but that isn't really euroskepticism. GL and D66 are easily the most pro-EU parties in the Netherlands.

Party for the Animals - animal rights party, polling strangely highly at the moment. My guess is that the parties leader is the only woman party leader at the moment, which has to be a draw.

That's not the reason why they're polling so high (in fact I came to think of this only now). They're liked for their staunch opposition to this government from an environmentalist ("earth") perspective, an issue GroenLinks has not been as vocal about lately.

[DavidB.]

I think I'd be a pretty reliable VVD voter in the Netherlands.

VNL sounds like a more reasonable offshoot of PVV, but I'm not really interested in the anti-immigrant/anti-EU hardline stuff.

VNL is not "anti-immigrant" in and of itself, it's against immigration of unskilled immigrants from outside the EU. It supports the implementation of the Canadian immigration model. VNL is also to the right of the VVD on economic issues, advocating a twenty-something percent flat tax.

[DavidB.]

Pirates, because pirates are cool!

(In all seriousness, either D66 or Socialists, can't decide which)

D66 is a right-wing party on economic issues, on some issues it has gone even more to the right than the VVD as of lately. That's why D66 and SP wouldn't be able to cooperate smoothly. Not that many people would be undecided between those two parties.

[DavidB.]

Can't I just have the old Dutch Labour Party, why isn't that an option?

Many Dutch people seem to be looking for that option. They vote for the PVV

[DavidB.]

D66 - party for western Ukrainians, very elitist, plays for the urban liberal crowd. Especially dislikes former governing party CDA and loathes their opposites the PVV. Staunch social liberals, extreme Eurofederalists and pro-nuke environmentalists.

GreenLeft - merger of various New Left and BRTD-Christian groups to form standard left-leaning Greens. Have adopted a more left-leaning platform (basic income etc.) after their widely panned collaboration with the Rutte I cabinet. Internationalists but soft Eurosceptics.

D66 isn't pro-nuke. Officially, they're not against it, but in practice, they would probably not support new nuclear power plants.

GL isn't "soft Eurosceptic" at all - it's only "Eurosceptic" in the sense that it thinks the EU should be federalized asap, but that isn't really euroskepticism. GL and D66 are easily the most pro-EU parties in the Netherlands.

I don't know where I read GL were Eurosceptic, will change that.

(Btw I would clearly vote for Party for the Animals, they'd be a hoot.)

The Party for the Animals is Eurosceptical (they're in GUE/NGL and its MEP votes together with the SP members), though, so maybe you mixed up these two?

[DavidB.]

Yes! That was it! Th animals people oppose the EU, probably because Juncker kills cats or something.

They don't really oppose the EU, their opposition to the way this EU functions is more comparable to the anti-TTIP movement's views. The PvdD thinks that the European single market generates profits for big corporations at the cost of the environment, animals, and the poor.

[DavidB.]

Party for the Animals - animal rights party, polling strangely highly at the moment. My guess is that the parties leader is the only woman party leader at the moment, which has to be a draw. has largely picked up the hippy vote from GroenLinks

Animal Party voting patterns are interesting in that they do well in left-leaning university cities (Wageningen) and in wealthy suburbs (Bergen NH), but also in some deprived areas far away from the Randstad urban area, such as in the east of Groningen province - these are likely protest votes.

[DavidB.]

They all sound pretty awful TBH

This might be something for you: http://www.ncpn.nl/ The last time they were on the ballot in a general election was in 2003, though, but they do have a few municipality councillors - strangely, they have two seats in Heiloo, an affluent suburb near Amsterdam. The NCPN's splitoff, the "United Communist Party", managed to get more seats than the NCPN itself after some hilarious true-leftist drama.

[DavidB.]

For the Netherlands.

FF

[DavidB.]

Reformed and ChristianUnion sounds good to me.

Erm are you actually opposed to women's suffrage? SGP also have a lot of people opposed to television, any businesses open on Sundays, insurance (which they consider gambling) and vaccines.

Most people in the SGP aren't opposed to women's suffrage, and even a smaller part of the party is against insurances. But yes, many SGP members do not have a television and almost all of them are against doing business on Sundays.

For the Netherlands.

So, Geert Wilders, but more pro-austerity?

VNL doesn't want "fewer Moroccans", like the PVV. VNL isn't for closing all mosques (only the radical ones), like the PVV. Et cetera, et cetera. Their positions on the islam aren't Geert Wilders'. His radicalization has led the founders of VNL to split off in the first place. VNL's positions on the islam in the Netherlands might be comparable to Wilders' when he left the VVD.

[DavidB.]

Ah, the original post made it sound like the only difference was that one supported austerity and the other didn't.

Yeah, but it was not my OP.

What are the temperaments of the leaders of the different parties? I'm familiar with Rutte and Wilders and not too many others.

Diederik Samsom is the unpopular Labour leader. He's on the left of his party. In the past, he studied at Delft University of Technology, volunteering for Greenpeace. He's led the party to the left, pushed an anti-VVD campaign, and then decided to join a coalition with that VVD, which was hard to sell to many people on the left. It is expected that he will be replaced by Lodewijk Asscher, former deputy mayor of Amsterdam, currently Minister of Social Affairs and Employment and Deputy Prime Minister. Asscher is seen as a capable policy maker (as opposed to an "activist" like Samsom) and is clearly more on the right of Labour. Samsom chose to involve his family in his television ads for the 2012 general election, saying how Labour would positively influence the life of his disabled daughter - but 1.5 years later he divorced because it became clear that he had repeatedly cheated on his wife. Embarrassing.

Sybrand van Haersma Buma is the boring CDA leader. He is called Buma because Van Haersma Buma is too long and sounds too elitist/out-of-touch. He's from the northern province of Frisia. Nothing special about him.

Alexander Pechtold is leader of D66 and has become popular by being the anti-Wilders. He studied Art History at Leiden University, being a member of probably the most elitist "fraternity"/"student corps". He is very eloquent and a good debater. He is seen as pedantic and has earned the nickname "Kereltje Pechtold", something like "little boy Pechtold". Pechtold is liked by many and hated by many. He's been the most outspoken critic of the Rutte-I minority government, which consisted of VVD and CDA with outside support from the PVV.

Jesse Klaver has only been leader of GroenLinks for a few months. He almost lost his seat in the disastrous 2012 election (being an MP since 2010), eventually reclaiming it only because of GroenLinks' surplus vote agreement with Labour. Only 29 years old, he should make GroenLinks look "hip" and "young" again. He's on the left of his party, but at the same time, he's definitely a "modernizer". He has a multi-ethnic background: his father is Moroccan and his mother is Dutch-Indonesian. People might find him "hot".

Emile Roemer is leader of the Socialist Party. He hails from the south-east of the country, having a "southern accent" (which makes him look like "an ordinary guy"). He used to be a teacher in elementary school. He is popular with many people who think that Labour has gone too far to the right, with people who think that Labour has become too out-of-touch, and with (often lower educated) people from "underprivileged regions". His SP led the polls in 2012 until Roemer blew it by some horrible television debate performances (and by an anti-SP media campaign, led by the media that supported Labour, which resembled Harper's "can't afford" campaign regarding the Canadian NDP).

Arie Slob is the boring ChristianUnion leader who led the party to the right on the economy, while still advocating left-wing policies on immigration, asylum seekers, and the environment.

Kees van der Staaij is the well-liked, young-looking SGP leader who has become the face of the party, often debating in popular television shows, representing conservative values. By doing so, he convinced non-Reformed conservative-leaning people to think of the SGP as a serious option (instead of CDA/PVV/CU). Of course, many people still think the SGP is the "Christian Taliban", but it's safe to say that Van der Staaij raised his party's electoral ceiling significantly.

Marianne Thieme is leader of the Animal Party. She is considered principled. She is also considered hot. A member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, she might be the only non-Catholic Christian politician on the Dutch left.

Bram Moszkowicz is VNL's new leader. He is not an MP (yet). He used to be the most well-known Dutch lawyer, defending Geert Wilders at his first trial. However, he got disbarred because of some tax evasion scandals. He has also been a television personality for a long time. He led an extremely luxury lifestyle until his recent bankruptcy. Summary: lots of drama, but people still think he's fascinating. I'm not thrilled by him leading this party, but luckily, there are very smart people who decide what Moszkowicz actually says (like VNL MP Joram van Klaveren).

[DavidB.]

VVD. I might consider VNL or the Libertarian party, but the Libertarian party has 0% chance at a seat and VNL's leader is a disbarred lawyer who evaded taxes. And I absolutely don't want the SP anywhere near the coalition. Roemer (SP leader) is a nice and likable guy but I think he would make a rather bad prime minister.

Another Dutch poster? Welcome!

[DavidB.]

GreenLeft or Socialist. D66 is too pro-EU for my tastes.

Just for your information: GreenLeft is exactly as pro-EU as D66

[DavidB.]

SP still fairly tough on immigration/assimilation? GreenLeft still basically the party for IS apologists?

Many SP voters (white working-class outside the Randstad metro area) are tough on immigration/assimilation, but the SP isn't nearly the "immigration-critical" party many people think it is. Under Marijnissen, the party had a slight "touch" of it, but the SP jumped on the anti-Wilders bandwagon already before 2010. Nowadays, its stance on immigration/refugees/assimilation is not really distinguishable from that of the PvdA. Looking abroad, the party the SP could be best compared to is still Die Linke, which is pretty telling. The only criticism on immigration the SP seems to have, is directed at the EU.

Regarding GroenLinks: pretty much, yeah.

[DavidB.]

SP still fairly tough on immigration/assimilation? GreenLeft still basically the party for IS apologists?

Many SP voters (white working-class outside the Randstad metro area) are tough on immigration/assimilation, but the SP isn't nearly the "immigration-critical" party many people think it is. Under Marijnissen, the party had a slight "touch" of it, but the SP jumped on the anti-Wilders bandwagon already before 2010. Nowadays, its stance on immigration/refugees/assimilation is not really distinguishable from that of the PvdA. Looking abroad, the party the SP could be best compared to is still Die Linke, which is pretty telling. The only criticism on immigration the SP seems to have, is directed at the EU.

Regarding GroenLinks: pretty much, yeah.

Could you elaborate on the latter aspect?

Well, these aren't exactly words I would say myself, but it is true that some people in GroenLinks (but no MPs, afaik, so let's not exaggerate this) were very... "understanding" of the attack on Charlie Hebdo - "yeah, the attack was bad, but provoking oppressed people, like Charlie Hebdo did, is bad as well". Equating these positions with each other is somewhat bizarre. We also have a problem with Dutch jihadis coming back from Syria after having been with ISIS for some time, and GroenLinks is one of the parties that basically says that these guys are "misled victims" themselves. I am all for a nuanced approach, but this is taking it a bit too far, I think; some of these guys might certainly have been misled and traumatized at some point, but that shouldn't be the first thing we think of when these people enter our country.