GroenLinks in trouble after leadership chaos, budget cut support

Support for the left-wing green party GroenLinks has slumped to just four seats, according to the latest Maurice de Hond opinion poll. The party, one of the signatories to the new austerity pact, has 10 seats in the current parliament.


The party’s popularity fell in last week’s poll following the decision to sign up for a package of spending cuts and new taxes. It is now down by a further three seats this week because of the chaos surrounding the leadership contest, De Hond said.
Leader Jolande Sap has been challenged for the job by Tofik Dibi, an MP since 2006, who says the party needs to broaden its appeal.
Dibi’s candidature has been derided and dismissed by the party’s board which deemed him to be ‘unsuitable’ and have a ‘lack of depth’. After protests, the board has now reconsidered and allowed him to challenge Sap. She, in turn, is said by Trouw to have put pressure on Dibi behind the scenes to drop the challenge.

Eurosceptics rise

The new De Hond poll also shows a loss of three seats for the VVD, currently the biggest party in government. De Hond says the right-wing Liberals would take 25 seats if there was a general election tomorrow, while the euro-sceptic Socialists are on 29.
Labour and the anti-immigration PVV are both on 23 seats in the De Hond poll.
The poll shows combined support for the five parties which agreed a €16bn austerity package earlier this month is down from 73 to 67 seats – well below the majority needed. Just 30% of voters are positive about the agreement, the De Hond poll shows.

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