Wopke Hoekstra remains leader of the CDA, even after the disastrous election results of the Provincial Council, which eventually elect the Senate. That is the outcome of a meeting of the party top on Tuesday evening in Maarssen.
Hoekstra already announced before the provincial elections that he wanted to remain party leader regardless of the result. On Tuesday, CDA chairman Hans Huibers said that Hoekstra can “without a doubt” remain as party leader, despite the major election defeat.
According to Hoekstra, this is about something bigger. “We as CDA have to take this result seriously. We have not listened enough to the people in the country.”
According to Hoekstra, there is “a gap” between The Hague and the rest of the country. He wants to listen better now. What will now change for the CDA remains unclear. The analysis of where things went wrong was also not given on Tuesday evening.
There was also no package of demands for the coalition partners. Previously, adjustments to the nitrogen policy were alluded to. This leads to a lot of dissatisfaction among farmers, but does not explain the great loss of the CDA. The party lost almost half of the number of provincial and Senate seats.
CDA mainly lost to BBB
The CDA top met for the second time in a week to discuss the disastrous election results. According to forecasts, the Christian Democrats will lose four seats in the Senate and tumble from nine to five seats. Compared to the parliamentary elections, many voters experienced or voted for the BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) at home.
Caroline van der Plas’ party mainly opposes the nitrogen policy. The government’s plans to bring forward the target of reducing emissions by half to 2030 and the option to expropriate farmers are meeting with a lot of social and political resistance.
The CDA suffers the most from this. The Christian Democrats were assured of broad support among the farmers for decades. But with the recent cabinet plans, the party seems to have antagonized the farmers.
Since the summer, the CDA has therefore been pushing for an adjustment of the nitrogen policy. Research by Ipsos and the NOS that was an important reason for a large group of voters to vote ‘against’ the cabinet.
Coalition party D66 has a completely different view in this regard. Nature is deteriorating due to nitrogen emissions and housing construction is stalling. That is why the party wants to do something about it as soon as possible. D66 members therefore insist on strict measures.
