Volkskrant: After Femke, who?

Femke Halsema is standing down as GroenLinks leader and MP at the next election. ‘This will be my final term’, she told the Algemeen Dagblad. The timing is precarious, writes the Volkskrant.

Halsema herself immediately dismissed the story as ‘non news’. She had obviously underestimated the impact of her announcement. ‘I have said numerous times that I would leave after this term. The party rules don’t allow for an additional term, even if I were prepared to stay on.’
Dispensation
Halsema (44) is right, of course. In the spring of this year she announced that she would head the party once more at the June elections. She had to ask for special dispensation because party rules dictate that MPs serve no more than three terms.
And not surprisingly she was allowed to carry on. There was no alternative. At the same time it took this announcement for the fact to sink in: Halsema is really leaving. And it’s coming at a time of political fragility.
Vigorous opposition
The cabinet, which Halsema is opposing so vigorously, has only just been installed. And Halsema’s GroenLinks is doing very well. It has ten seats, which takes it back to its 2002, only one seat below its 1998 record.
Halsema lost a number of elections in between but now she is peaking, not in the least in the political popularity stakes. Last year she won the Thorbecke prize for political eloquence. This year GroenLinks joined the formation talks as a potential partner to VVD, PvdA and D66. It was a first for the party, not that anything came of it, but significant all the same.
It’s a vulnerable moment for the party which now has to look for a new leader. It will have to be quick because there is no telling when this cabinet, tottering under the weight of its fragile political consensus, will collapse. Since Paars I (1994-1998) no cabinet has served a full term. Halsema who became an MP in 1998 knows like no other how quickly the end can come. If the party wants to be ready in time, the new party leader will have to be chosen sooner rather than later.

Possibles
There are a number of talented potential successors among the party MPs. Jolande Sap (47) is a likely candidate. She succeeded Wouter Duyendak as an MP in September 2008 and quickly made a name for herself as a financial expert and member of the De Wit Committee which investigated the causes of the credit crisis. Sap is Halsema’s opposite in some ways. Halsema comes from a politically minded, middle class family while Sap, from a disadvantaged Limburg family, made it on willpower and intellect alone.
Jesse Klaver is also in with a chance. He is new to parliament but the 24 year-old is learning fast as his ever expanding CV shows. If Halsema hangs on a little bit longer it will give Klaver some time to mature.

Dark horses

There are others of course. Kathalijne Buitenweg (40), for instance, the GroenLinks member of the European parliament and writer of the party election programme.
Her marriage to Amsterdam councillor Maarten van Poelgeest (45) may leave her open to accusations of nepotism. It could also reinforce the image of GroenLinks as a ‘grachtengordelpartij’, a party for the well off. She also lacks the platform that MPs Sap and Klaver have.