In a stately building on Lange Voorhout in The Hague, dozens of frames hang haphazardly on the wall, containing photos of JOVD boards. This year the VVD political youth organization is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The organization has produced 'greats' such as Johan Remkes, Ed Nijpels, Hans Wiegel and more recently Mark Rutte. Mauk Bresser, the current chairman of the JOVD and bachelor's student of International Business Law in Leiden, sits on one of the large leather Chesterfield sofas in the middle of the room.
The VVD is in difficult waters. This Saturday the party will present the draft list of candidates for the European Parliament elections, but it is expected that this party conference will be overshadowed by the concerns of critical party members. The VVD Senate faction voted unanimously in favor of the dispersal law last Tuesday, to the relief of Eric van der Burg, the State Secretary for Asylum. Party leader Dilan Yesilgöz previously tried to postpone the discussion of the same law until after its formation through a motion in the House of Representatives.
According to Bresser, the situation symbolizes the course that his parent party is currently taking. “The VVD governs based on political pragmatism,” explains the 23-year-old JOVD chairman. “The party responds to gut feeling, not to the liberal values that the VVD should stand for. For the vast majority of VVD ministers and MPs, it is more a political story than reasoning based on ideology. The only person I have heard say something from liberalism in recent years was Mark Rutte. And of course he was quite flexible about that.”
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Political pragmatism
Unlike many other political youth organizations, the JOVD traditionally operates independently of the parent party. Bresser participated in radio broadcasts many times immediately after the election results and is not shy in criticizing. “The VVD plays a game in which it is estimated again and again how much the party can get out of it politically,” he says. “That is very smart, but it can no longer be explained to the people who did or did not vote for you.”
According to Bresser, political pragmatics is also dominant in the case of the distribution law. “There is internal division, but I hear within VVD circles that most people agree with the dispersal law. They support Eric van der Burg, but they are afraid of the political consequences of this decision. Afraid it will come across as spinning. That sawing the chair legs is from Yesilgöz. That it repels the PVV again. Then it is no longer a matter of whether or not a distribution law is in place, but about what the next step is.”
“Ultimately, there will only be healthy politics again when people can trust that choices are not made out of self-interest or because it is politically convenient,” says Bresser, who calls on the VVD to show its 'ideological feathers' again. “Now do things based on your faith! This way your story is traceable.”
Is political pragmatism purely something of the VVD?
“It is something of a management party. I think that the CDA and the PvdA also had this, parties that held responsibility for a longer period of time. The CDA is now handling things a lot better with Henri Bontenbal, by going back to Christian Democracy, back to its norms and values.”
The CDA is at a historic low in terms of seat numbers.
“Precisely! That is why the VVD must do something about it now, before the party ends up with five seats.”
How do you view Dilan Yesilgöz's political leadership?
“Dilan did not really have to fight for her leadership position. She made it quite easy and rolled into the elections. Due to a combination of novelty and fatigue, things went very fast in the last week. Then the VVD dropped in the polls and the PVV rose. If the election had been two weeks earlier, you might have seen a very different outcome.
“Mark Rutte came to power after his battle with Rita Verdonk. Such a fierce battle is not desirable, but he has proven himself in it. Ultimately, it took five years for Rutte to win an election. In its first election, the VVD went from 28 to 22 seats. Yesilgöz went from 34 to 24. It is now up to Dilan to prove himself as the political leader of the VVD.”
The JOVD chairman expects that new elections will not take long. The cabinet will be formed, but it will not last long, Bresser thinks: a coalition with three parties that have not had their plans calculated will go wrong sooner or later. Then finances are a suitable theme for the VVD to make the cabinet stand out, says Bresser: “The VVD as I have seen it does not accept that public finances are being destroyed. This theme is not as polarized within the party as migration. Both the left and right wings agree on healthy public finances.”
Before that happens, formation negotiations will continue. According to Bresser, the fact that the VVD is sitting at the table with the clear election winner is logical and democratic. However, one thing is clear as far as the JOVD is concerned: Wilders should not become prime minister. “Someone who has said what he has said for twenty years cannot be prime minister of all Dutch people.”
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