WITH VIDEOLilianne Ploumen steps down as leader of the Labor Party. She also leaves the House of Representatives and national politics. Ploumen calls himself ‘not the ideal leader’: ,,It was not good enough. And staying longer would be inconvenient and untrue.”
Niels Klaassen, Tobias den Hartog
Latest update:
12:28
Ploumen just reported this in a message to members and an explanation to the media. “It’s also about how you communicate your ideas and plans, including in debates. It wasn’t bad, but it just wasn’t good enough. I set the bar high. That is hard for me, I love this match.”
Ploumen believes that a PvdA leader should be able to deliver more. ,,You are super suitable for some things, but not for others. I don’t consider myself good enough to lead the party into the future. I don’t think the role of political leader suits me very well. You have to be at home on all subjects, it has to be good in debates. I don’t think I can live up to that well enough, so I’m stepping back. I want to be honest with others and with myself.”
The group leadership is provisionally assumed by two members of the group board Kati Piri and Henk Nijboer. The faction will probably soon appoint a successor to Ploumen.
Ploumen also gives up her membership of the House of Representatives because she ‘does not want to get in the way of her successor’. She is leaving national politics. Ploumen was previously party chairman and minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.
“I will not become the oracle from Slotervaart, but I will remain what I was all those years, an involved party member. Staying longer would be uncomfortable and untruthful.” Ploumen has been thinking about this decision for a few weeks, PvdA members and GroenLinks MPs were completely surprised by the departure: ,,The answer after those weeks is that the leadership does not suit me well, I am not the ideal leader of the party. ”
Allowance affair
Ploumen succeeded Lodewijk Asscher at the beginning of last year, who left as a result of the Allowances affair. After Ploumen’s arrival, the PvdA started working more closely with GroenLinks, much to the chagrin of some veterans. Former PvdA leaders spoke out against the collaboration. Adri Duivesteijn spoke of the ‘end of the PvdA’, former minister Ronald Plasterk sneered that GroenLinks was ‘a rich party’ and former party chairman Hans Spekman was also critical.
The two left-wing parties made an alternative program together, entered the formation as a ‘block’. But in large House debates, GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver was especially prominent, Ploumen was much less visible.
She does not think that the collaboration with GroenLinks played a role. Ploumen does not want to say whether her departure is the prelude to a real merger: “You should really ask my successor.”
Board ‘is surprised and saddened’
The PvdA board and party chairman Esther-Mirjam Sent are surprised by Lilianne Ploumen’s decision to resign as political leader of the party. In a statement, Sent said they are sad, but respect her choice.
“We are very grateful to her for all the years in which she has committed herself to our party.” Sent praises Ploumen for her fight for the most vulnerable in society, she also emphasizes that Ploumen stood up as party leader ‘when our party was struggling’. Ploumen took office in January last year, barely two months before the elections to the House of Representatives, because Lodewijk Asscher unexpectedly resigned as a result of the allowance affair.
There have been complaints in recent weeks, although it remained anonymous grumbling. Experienced PvdA members of the House of Representatives would find the collaboration too much and too quickly. The fear was that the PvdA would get too close to the ‘hip’, green left of Klaver and thereby lose contact with the old, more popular grassroots.
Affair Gijs van Dijk
Ploumen was also criticized for how she handled the affair around PvdA MP Gijs van Dijk. He resigned after several reports of ‘undesirable behavior in the private sphere’. An investigation into this is still ongoing, but the Van Dijk camp felt that Ploumen had sacrificed him too quickly on the basis of accusations that had already been partly known and brushed aside by the party, after an earlier investigation. According to Ploumen, her departure has ‘nothing to do with Gijs van Dijk’.
In our Live News Update we spoke to reporter Tobias den Hartog about Ploumen’s departure:
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