Red Vooruit sets up a new party when a merger PvdA and GroenLinks will be continued

Red Vooruit, the movement of Labor members who does not want a merger with GroenLinks, will set up their own Social Democratic party when that merger of GroenLinks and the PvdA is continued. This was what Reshma Roopram, former alderman of the PvdA in Barendrecht and one of the initiators of Rood Vooruit, announced on Saturday afternoon at a meeting of the movement in the Utrecht Stedelijk Gymnasium.

« As long as the PvdA exists, we will make our voice full of passion, full of strength, full of drive » within the PvdA, says Roopram. But if the party is canceled « there is a new Labor Party the next day ». The audience, consisting of around 55 people, hit hard for the announcement. According to Roopram, this step is needed, because there must always be a ‘full -fledged Social Democratic party’.

That the merger between the two parties is almost certain, since a large majority of the members are in favor.

The question of what red would do if the merger continues, the fall of the cabinet became acute last week. On Thursday, the boards of GroenLinks and PvdA announced that they submit a referendum to their members, which will run until 12 June. If a majority of the members of both parties agree with the merger, the boards will start working in the coming year on the establishment of the new party. In the summer of 2026 that would only lead to a new party, and the lifting of the PvdA and GroenLinks. Roopram said: « We are pushed through the throat. Within a week we can make the decision to cancel our party. That’s what it comes down to. »

It is a striking acceleration of the party boards, because the members of the parties could actually vote two weeks later, at the Congress of 21 June. There was a lot of resentment about that acceleration of those present at the meeting of Red Vooruit: they believe that the process is careless and undemocratic.

The question of whether Red Vooruit would start its own party had been in the air for some time. Other leaders such as former PvdA leader Ad Melkert and former chamber chairman Gerdi Verbeet did not want to exclude in recent months that they would leave the PvdA for a new party if the merger is continued.

By proponents of the merger within GroenLinks and the PvdA, red is put away as a small and nostalgic movement. Melkert said on Tuesday that « some think that the movement is having a » rear -guard fight.  » « I think we are the outpost. »

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