DutchNews.nl - Sap elected GroenLinks leader, manifesto published

Jolande Sap was on Wednesday elected to lead the green party GroenLink's campaign for the September general election with over 84% of the votes.

Challenger Tofik Dibi took just over 12%. Dibi came under heavy fire for forcing a leadership contest at a time when support for the party is waning.

After the results were announced, he said he had no regrets. 'I fought for my ideals and I will continue to do that for GroenLinks,' he told reporters.

Meanwhile, the party has published its draft manifesto for the election campaign, which includes calls for a 60% top tax rate and cuts to unemployment benefit.

The party wants to limit mortgage tax relief to mortgages of under €1m and phase it out altogether over a 25-year period.

The party also says 'older people with a good income' should continue to pay state pension contributions even when they are pensioners themselves. Unemployment benefit should be cut from 38 months to one year, but the actual pay-out should be increased, the party says.

GroenLinks, one of the five parties which signed up to the recent austerity measures, has been hit hard in the popularity stakes in recent weeks. The party now has 10 seats in parliament but opinion polls say it would win five or six if there was a general election tomorrow.

Readers' Comments

They should rename the themselves the green right.There is nothing really leftist about them at all.One of the most dissapointing partys in Nederland.

By jason buttle | 7 June 2012 10:30 AM

60% top tax rate? 21% VAT? This smacks of "one for you, two for me" thinking by our political parties. Imagine someone paying 60% income tax, who happens to be divorced with children, and so paying alimony and child support. It nearly reaches a point where it becomes cheaper NOT to work at all!

By Rick Kane | 8 June 2012 9:50 AM

I think GroenLinks is the worse party in the NL, there voters are a bunch of hippy kids with rich parents who claim to be left wing because they think it's trendy.

By Phil | 9 June 2012 10:53 AM

GroenLinks, 'anybody green enough,(wet behind the ears), would be voting for another 4 year term of elite goons, that will change their manifesto as soon as empowered. What is the point of replacing one mafia guv for another?

There only thing green in NL politics is money, and it's confiscation from the disadvantaged, similar to the US ' Patriot Act.'

By The visitor | 11 June 2012 12:19 AM