SP leader Lilian Marijnissen has full support from her supporters, but her message seems to be reaching less people outside. Their political ideas are not listened to, young people do not feel committed to the party, and political successes do not remain in the hands of the voters. How does Marijnissen plan to turn the tide in this election?
An Ipsos poll commissioned by Nieuwsuur shows that 70 percent of SP supporters see Lilian Marijnissen as the SP’s best leader. 26 percent answered this question neutrally. In other words, the majority of his party thinks he is unfit to lead the party.
However, since taking office at the end of 2017, Marijnissen has suffered only electoral losses at national, regional and European levels. It is also losing seats in the latest polls. The SP currently has nine seats in the House of Representatives, but has five seats on the ballot. SP is a relatively popular party among older people (14 percent of those over 60 vote for it), but young voters ignore it. Only 4 percent of voters under the age of 45 vote for SP.
However, in his article in Nieuwsuur he says that Marijnissen does not rule out joint management. He dreams of giving ministerial posts to SP members Agnes Kant and Renske Leijten, but he also believes that the post of social affairs and public health “would suit him”. “The idea that you will remain in the House of Representatives as a political leader is actually my starting point, but you never know what the formation will be next. “There is a lot to do.”
Big ideas, no political majority
SP has traditionally been known as the party that is literally among the people in neighborhoods and factories. The party does not yet appear to have found a new form of successful election campaigning. A protest against supermarket profits, a petition to nationalize energy companies and a petition to close down all health insurance companies: these are a selection of the SP’s actions in recent years. However, there is no national political majority in any of these projects.
Marijnissen says that steps have been taken to privatize the energy sector in various provinces. For example, in Limburg: “In the state government where the SP is located, the coalition agreement states that the design of a state energy company must be examined.”
Major reforms, especially in the healthcare system, have been SP’s hobby for years. The party wants to eliminate all trade in healthcare and establish a National Health Fund. This plan has collected 250,000 signatures since 2016. In the House of Representatives, SP always seems to hit the wall of impracticality.
“The special thing is that there is a majority in the country,” says Marijnissen. However, in recent years there has been a right-wing policy and despite these good words, it still does not take steps to reduce market forces in the healthcare system.”
But even experts are less than enthusiastic about the National Health Fund. “Delegating health duties to the government is very nice in itself,” says Xander Koolman, a health economist at Vrije University. “But changing the system is extremely expensive. “This could easily cost 100 billion euros.”
Marijnissen doubts this amount and points to billion-dollar funds for climate and nitrogen. “We would rather use this money to eliminate the power of health insurers in the future, put control back where it belongs, and prevent an explosion in healthcare costs.”
Erik Slotboom, a German teacher at pre-secondary level, always chooses SP, but now he has doubts. He praises the work done by the SP, especially former MP Renske Leijten, to expose the social security scandal. He wonders why he stayed with Pieter Omtzigt and not with SP.
Former SP MP Renske Leijten was the political face of the social welfare issue together with Pieter Omtzigt, but this did not bring any electoral gains to the SP after the collapse of the cabinet in 2022 due to this scandal. The party lost five seats.
Marijnissen attributes this to his party’s modesty. “We need to make this clearer. People think: If I vote for SP, will they vote or will there still be opposition? We have shown that we have absolute added value than the competition, but we still have something to gain.
We also talked with Marijnissen about the SP’s pain points at the local level and the integration of wealthy leftists into the party. Watch the full conversation here:
Source: NOS
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
