What should happen next for the left? It is a period of complex emotions at GroenLinks-PvdA. Many of them would like to be happy with the result of the first national elections in which both parties acted together: 25 parliamentary seats under party leader Frans Timmermans, a gain of eight. But the Netherlands is right-wing. The PVV has become by far the largest party and the left as a whole has become a lot smaller.
So no, Noortje Thijssen and Tim 'S Jongers are not just happy. Thijssen (1983) is director of the scientific bureau of GroenLinks, 'S Jongers (1981) is her PvdA colleague. They see that the left is under pressure. They are sitting in the office of 'his' Wiardi Beckman Foundation in The Hague. The two most prominent ideologues of GroenLinks and PvdA were ultimately responsible for the joint election manifesto, and are working increasingly closely together. Last week they gave the Willem Drees lecture together in The Hague, in which Tim 'S Jongers said, among other things, that “the left has become a swear word.”
They have no opinion on whether GroenLinks and PvdA should merge. But Tim 'S Jongers says that the left-wing movement could be a bit more militant. “Left-wing ideals in particular have brought a lot to society, from social security to emancipation. But the things that make sense to us are constantly being fought over. It is time for us to provide a counterbalance and stand up more for our ideals. If we left-progressive thinkers don't do it, who will?”
What is your explanation for the PVV's enormous election win?
Thijssen: “I read the best analysis last week at the WRR (the Scientific Council for Government Policy): people have lost control of their lives. Whether it concerns healthcare, public transport or education. If there is no government that helps insecure people, but instead pushes them away, then you get these kinds of results.”
's Jongers: “When inequality grows, unease also grows. Many people see their lives moving in that direction. They want to build a life, but due to the housing shortage they have to live with their mother for another five years. That uneasiness was once a peat fire, but now it is a real fire.”
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Discomfort due to inequality is really a left-wing theme, isn't it? Why hasn't the left taken advantage of that discontent?
Thijssen: “The left never really got the chance. Forty years of neoliberal policies have been pursued, which were not exactly left-wing politics.”
'S Jongers: “Our social services have increasingly deteriorated since the 1980s due to an increasingly important role of the market. People want their social security to remain at the same level, and there are two political answers to this: you project a different future for them, or you hark back to the past, in a kind of nostalgic nationalism. We do the first, parties like the PVV do the second. And their message, in which they oppose population groups and hark back to a past that never was, is easier. If people don't feel in control, they don't feel good about themselves, then they don't want to change.”
The PvdA often co-governed during those decades of neoliberal policy. As Prime Minister, Wim Kok shook off the ideological feathers of the PvdA.
's Jongers: “Yes, and those feathers don't grow back on their own. We are now working together to put on a new ideological outfit, but that cannot be the same story as before. We have to look ahead.”
Voters may not yet see it that way.
's Jongers: “No matter which room I stand in front of, there is at least one person who asks if I would like to apologize for the policy of the Rutte II cabinet.” That was the cabinet of VVD and PvdA, which introduced many reforms. “I understand it, but I have nothing to do with that policy, that was a completely different spirit of the times.”
Thijssen: “The neoliberal belief was embraced by left and right, and the problem was that it was a belief that took hold in people's heads and hearts. Now it is our job to come up with a new language, with new perspectives. A new ism is needed after neoliberalism.”
What should that ism be called?
Thijssen: “That is the million dollar question. The funny thing is: we have just published a book at the scientific bureau of GroenLinks, There is an alternative. 35 experts contributed to this. But no one could think of the good name of that newism in that book.”
's Jongers: “Alternativism? Something like that?”
Thijssen: “It's all about control and democratization. The concentration of power is now in the political elite, the economic elite, the multinationals, but it must go much more back to the basics, to people. You sometimes hear about 'the emptiness of the left', but I don't agree with that at all. Our story is already very strong. We just have to express it with more verve.”
Why doesn't that happen?
“Maybe left-wing people are sometimes a little too sweet, too defensive. Especially after a negative election result, and certainly with the PvdA, they have a hand in this. Then reports come again and the pieces have to be picked up. Right-wing politicians, they just carry on. A little reflection is good, but it should not become self-flagellation.”
What should the left's narrative be?
“Our strength lies in combining the green and the red agenda. We want CO emissions2 reduction, restore nature, but also ensure that no one is left behind. And that the project of restoring the planet also becomes a social project, that we distribute the benefits and burdens more fairly. I find it an intellectual enrichment that we are now working together, because you can also look at climate policy in a 'red' way.”
In the campaign, GroenLinks-PvdA focused on social security and climate. Aren't these two themes often in conflict with each other in the eyes of many voters?
Thijssen: “I don't see it that way at all. Why?”
Climate policy also requires sacrifices for a longer-term goal, and social security is about conservation.
Thijssen: “There are a few groups in our program that are sacrificing, the groups that have a lot of power or that pollute a lot. But the people who cannot defend themselves against the consequences of climate change are actually improving. Life becomes more pleasant in their isolated home, the air they breathe becomes cleaner. Public facilities such as education or healthcare are becoming more accessible.”
's Jongers: “We could tell our story with a little more bravado. I read last week that climate damage makes home insurance more expensive. They don't suffer from this in Wassenaar, but they do in the Schilderswijk. So social security is already at risk.”
Tim 'S Jongers grew up in Antwerp, in poverty. That experience is his political “drive,” he says. “The fact that I have been able to make something of my life is because of social democratic ideals such as accessible education for everyone. A quarter, thirty percent of this society is wrongly pushed into a corner, with personal responsibility, self-reliance, personal guilt, big lump. These are not people who have dropped out, they have been pushed away by the system. I see that as my task: pull all those people out of that corner one by one.”
There was no poverty in Noortje Thijssen's family, but her parents were not well off when she was young. “Everything has always been about financial security, stability, diplomas.” They encouraged her and her sister to study, to move up. “My parents are now doing very well financially, and my sister and I will never be this good again. Let alone my daughter. I already know that. So that ideal no longer exists either. And now we have had that conversation with my parents for years: that is actually very strange. If you really need help later, there will be no one in healthcare who will take care of you. Because you have insisted that university is the highest attainable goal.”
Is it problematic that, according to voter research, left-wing voters are predominantly highly educated city dwellers? And that the people you want to stand up for have voted for the left to a much lesser extent?
's Jongers: “I'm just there fucking I am proud that I am active for a group that does not want to push others away, but wants to work selflessly for others. Whether those people are highly educated or not. And I also think: if you have to keep your pants on for forty years, it is more difficult to have an eye for the interests of others.”
In the Drees lecture you call for a 'joining of forces' on the left, including with D66, SP, Party for the Animals and Volt. Are you in favor of one broad progressive party?
Thijssen: “That is up to the members, and to be honest it doesn't matter to me what that collaboration will look like. Whether two parties merge or whether there is an alliance of four parties. In any case, don't eat each other's food every election.”
's Jongers: “If progressive becomes smaller, then it must work together better. Not just the parties, but also the trade unions, the environmental movement, the youth movement. We always make each other a bit small.”
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