'Labour party in deplorable state,' says MP

Wednesday 07 October 2009

The PvdA, or Labour party, is in a 'deplorable state', according to MP Diederik Samsom in an email to fellow Labour MPs.

The email has been obtained by the NRC and Samsom has confirmed its authenticity.

Last week, Samsom emailed the rest of the Labour faction to say he had had doubts whether to again stand as party secretary because of the 'dismal' state of affairs. He was re-elected last week, the NRC says.

The party is suffering seriously in the polls and would see its share of the vote more than halved if there was an election tomorrow. Labour currently has 33 seats in the 150-seat parliament and is the second biggest party in the three-party coalition.

'We are now the fifth or sixth biggest party in the country. That is not a position a people's party can operate from,' Samsom wrote.

Election fears

There is also a lot of unhappiness within the party at the role of ministers who do not realise how critical the situation is, the paper says. Much must change before the local council elections in March to avoid a 'disastrous' result, Samsom says.

The social democrats performed very badly at the European elections in June, losing four of their seven seats in the European parliament.

Support for the party has been shrinking since before joined forces with two Christian parties to form a new government in early 2007. Labour's leader Wouter Bos is finance minister in the current government and has been criticised for his dual role.

© DutchNews.nl

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