Henri Bontenbal makes the CDA decent again

The Hague

Some CDA people can hardly believe it: Hein Pieper, back to their party? Pieper, for a long time CDA member, a short chamber member, chairman of the CDA Overijssel In the time that the province was allowed to be called a CDA bulb, all in all a real CDA member, one of them, had suddenly switched to a new social contract two years ago.

In fact, he had helped set up that party and became the first party chairman. He was, as CDA’ers talked about it at the time, overlooked To Pieter Omtzigt, who had already left the CDA. Even then Pieper after a complaint about an old work dispute gave up As a party chairman of NSC, he said he would stay a party member.

But now he is back at the CDA. He has recently been working as an editor Christian Democratic Explorationsthe magazine of the scientific institute of that party. And he is considering a renewed membership, he leaves it NRC know through a spokesperson for the CDA. Pieper does not want to explain yourself.

His return symbolizes what the CDA has experienced in recent months. After the Lower House elections of 2023, the party left five room seats: an absolute low point. Now, a year and a half later, the party is virtually at around 18 seats and Henri Bontenbal of all party leaders is best rated by voters.

What happened in the CDA?

Brabant twice

“I think this is the best time for the CDA, ever”, Says Henri Bontenbal. It is at the end of March, he is on a low stage in a room in Roosendaal, Brabant. The attendees, many CDA people, but not all of them, have listened to him carefully for a long time, have asked questions. They have also been compliment. He has heard that the energy with him ‘from splash’. Someone said: « I am tróts again to be CDA. »

Bontenbal, jeans, jacket, no tie, hears it, folds his hands, makes a small bow.

Almost two years earlier, also in a full room in Brabant, it was Pieter Heerma who stood opposite CDA people. The Rutte IV cabinet ruled, elections seemed far away and the CDA went badly. Henri Bontenbal was not a party leader yet, but just a member of parliament.

Heerma, then party chairman, went on the country, all the provinces, to tell the new story of the CDA. He wanted to do it differently, shake things up. Not giving the umpteenth presentation, which the room had to listen to. Instead, he had put together a folder on his laptop, with graphs, maps of the Netherlands who say something about how the country is doing. About sub -advice, housing shortage, labor intensity, use of medication. Depending on the questions of the room, he quoted the data. He wanted to talk about his plans for the Netherlands.

But whether the room wanted that too?

Every session always ended in questions about hassle in the CDA, the survival of the party, there was displeasure, there were worries. And Heerma had no pictures there. Everything he said did not seem good enough for the room.

In the Brabantse Zaaltje van Bontenbal things are going differently in March. There is no one who starts about hassle, there is not. And Bontenbal seems to be able to say nothing wrong. He disagrees with the most questioners in the room. « I tend to go a bit with you, but I also hear a little voice in mind that says I have to push, » he says, for example. Nobody seems to mind. Afterwards a long line forms: almost everyone wants to be photographed.

Who knows Bontenbal?

When Bontenbal was presented in the summer of 2023 as the party leader of the CDA, the question was whether that party would still exist after the November elections. Voters had nothing to do with the CDA, the party was associated with a fight, hassle, decline. Had Pieter Omtzigt had already resigned, now he would come up with his own party. One after the other CDA’er went with him. Another well -known CDA member, Mona Keijzer, was a prime minister for the BBB. Both had been a candidate leader for the CDA three years earlier, now they had nothing left of that party.

And who knew who Henri Bontenbal was?

De Rotterdammer had been an advisor to a network operator, and was only short climate spokesperson for the CDA in the Lower House.

Loss of seat

In the CDA they had resigned themselves to an inexpensive loss of seat. In interviews, Bontenbal called the elections a « intermediate station », something that the party should go through.

« I know that I am in a underdog position, that I have to come from far, » he said at that time in NRC. « I really think we can come back. » He wanted to bring the game back to the middle. What he meant: his predecessors had been too right-wing conservative.

The CDA then does two things: Bontenbal can be seen over, in talk shows, TV programs, newspapers. And he is given room to work on a substantive story that he practices during lectures throughout the country. What does the room react to, and then how? Bontenbal is often talking about the ‘responsible society’, which can not only rely on politics or business for solutions, about norms and values. He gives a series of lectures under the name ‘to a decent country’.

Bontenbal, and thus the CDA, thus opts for a subject that voters, according to voter’s research, continued to associate with that party despite everything: norms and values, community spirit.

At the beginning of April he gives two lectures in one week. In one of them, the Kerdijk reading, he starts again about the responsible society. He repeats the plea that he already made in the room in Brabant: the government must be more fair about choices it makes, and also that not everything can be resolved in no time.

In his argument, another ultrasound of his performance in Brabant sounds. According to him, the government should focus on its own core tasks. « That also means that we have to moderate ourselves as politicians. Because if there is something that does not seem to be able to do politics, it is ‘no’ saying. »

The lectures of Bontenbal are well visited, but it is the never the largest halls. They are only moderately looked back on social media. But for Bontenbal that does not matter, it is a way for him to sharpen his story, to have something to fall back on if he writes his input for parliamentary debates, if he has to answer questions for rooms and in the next election campaign. It gives him ground to form the party.

In January of this year, the CDA will take a new position on a national fireworks ban. The party was always against, but now argues. In a statement on the website, all the terms that Bontenbal has made since his appointment are important in the story for the CDA: politics has the task of « standing standards », society bears « the responsibility » for a « decent » New Year’s Eve.

Although the party is counted on critical noises from the supporters, they are not forthcoming.

That happens again when Henri Bontenbal carefully sets the door ajar for common European debts in March of this year to strengthen European defense. The party has always been against that. To the surprise of the CDA summit, it does not seem to matter to the supporters that their party leader seems to want to give the cabinet room. It remains virtually quiet.

Bontenbal above story

The fact that the CDA has been doing well in the polls, says Peter Kanne of research agency Ipsos I&O, is largely due to Henri Bontenbal. He is the most appreciated politician, voters from almost all parties give him a sufficient one.

« Usually voters say that they vote for a party because of the content, » says Kanne. « 59 percent say they do that for example because of the views of a party, 43 percent because of the ideology. » This is considerably less at the CDA. Of the voters who say they will vote for the next parliamentary elections at the CDA, only 42 percent say they do that because of the views, and only 29 percent because of the ideology. No less than 63 percent say they want to do that because of Bontenbal. « That percentage is not so high for any other party, » said Kanne.

« Bontenbal is praised because he has a constructive attitude, from the opposition, » says Kanne. « Unlike other opposition leaders, on the left, you don’t hear him say that this cabinet has to leave. He is constructive, and that is appreciated by voters. »

A remarkable outcome of his voter investigation is that about half of the people who say they want to vote for the CDA does that because the CDA would ensure a stable administration of the Netherlands. « The CDA is the only alternative for right -wing voters who are disappointed in the cabinet, » said Kanne. « FOR A PART that go to coalition party VVD, but if they want to punish the cabinet, they have to go to the CDA. The distance between that party and the government parties is the smallest ideologically. »

Nevertheless, Kanne also sees a risk for the Christian Democrats. « Bontenbal is only known by two-thirds of the Dutch. His fame among fifty-miners is low, and the lowest among young people. » Moreover, Bontenbal has not yet been tested. Kanne compares him with Pieter Omtzigt during the time he had just left the CDA. « Initially he seemed to be unable to do nothing wrong. Until his political opponents began to challenge him, he turned out to be much more conservative than voters initially thought. They dropped out. »

Mildness and irritation

In the voter investigations of Ipsos I&O, the CDA recovers the most votes from NSC, about a third of the people who still voted for Pieter Omtzigt in 2023, says that he now wants to do that at the CDA.

In the CDA there is a varying response.

In part there is mildness and understanding: some CDA people had worked hard for years, in departments throughout the country, but were ignored by the national top. They were confronted with angry voters, who did not understand what the CDA in The Hague was doing. They could also explain that more and more difficult. It was still conceivable that they were walking away in the CDA.

But there is also irritation about regret optants who had publicly distanced themselves from the CDA, had turned their back on the party, when the CDA was so bad to disappear that they had started to seek salvation at BBB and NSC and things had said like: « Christian Democracy is in better hands there. »

They also toast again on party drinks of the CDA.

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