Left-wing collaboration in Amsterdam

22 October 2017

This weekend, PvdA (social-democrats), SP (socialists) and GroenLinks (green party) have announced a left-wing pact. The parties criticize the ‘worthless’ coalition agreement of the new right-wing national government and opt for a city that is sustainable and characterised by solidarity. At the same time, the pact is an indication that the signatories want to form a coalition after the local election in March 2018.

Such a far-reaching form of collaboration is quite remarkable by Amsterdam standards. Have there been signs that such an alliance was in the making? An interesting indicator is collaboration on motions and amendments. Jointly presenting a motion not only requires that you agree on substance, but also that you get along well.

The chart below shows the percentage of motions and amendments that were presented by PvdA, SP and GroenLinks, since the previous election (in order to iron out seasonal effects, the chart shows the 12-month moving average).

The numbers aren’t very large, so we shouldn’t draw too firm conclusions from this. That said, it appears that PvdA, SP and GroenLinks have increased their collaboration. This started around May, not very long after the national election in March.

Have there been similar overtures among right-wing parties? The chart below shows joint initiatives of right-wing VVD and christian-democrat CDA.

It appears that VVD and CDA have also increased their collaboration since the national election. The majority of their joint initiatives are from Werner Toonk (VVD) and Diederik Boomsma (CDA), often dealing with education. If the collaboration depends on the people involved, this doesn’t bode well for the future: Toonk has ended his membership of the city council.

D66 (green and pro-market) is in a bit of a quandary. Nationally, they’re part of the coalition with VVD; CDA and ChristenUnie, and locally they have commited to defend the national coalition agreement. On the other hand, in the Amsterdam council, D66 appears to have somewhat intensified its collaboration with GroenLinks and PvdA.

All in all, it appears that the national election has been a catalyst for changes at the Amsterdam level. Left-wing parties have increased their collaboration, which has now resulted in a quite remarkable pact. Right-wing parties also seem to explore closer collaboration, but it’s too early to say how sustainable this will be.

Examples of left-wing collaboration

The council members most actively involved in PvdA-SP-GroenLinks motions are Jorrit Nuijens (GroenLinks), Dennis Boutkan (PvdA) en Tiers Bakker (SP).

Recent motions dealt with topics including a municipal tax on «hot money» (Bakker, Roosma, Boutkan), transparency regarding the remuneration of board members of organisations that receive subsidies (Boutkan, Groot Wassink, Peters) and a cap on insecure jobs at the municipality (Boutkan, Ernsting, Peters).

Motions and amendments filed until 27 September have been published.

Source: dirkmjk | Categories: Data