Fundamentalist Protestants say “no” again to women MPs

The fundamentalist Protestant party SGP has decided not to give way to pressure and include women on its list of potential MPs for the October 29 general election.

The party, which has three MPs in the current 150 seat parliament, rejected calls to formally allow women to stand for political office in May, voting by 299 to 53 against a change to the party’s statutes.

The amendment was put forward by Lilian Janse, the first woman to have won a council seat on behalf of the party, and her local branch in Vlissingen.

The right-wing SGP believes the country should be governed “entirely on the basis of the ordinances of God as revealed in the Holy Scriptures”, and therefore holds that women should not play an active role in political life.

Janse, who has been a councillor for 11 years, wanted to stand for parliament at the next election but is prevented from doing so by party rules which state that becoming “part of political bodies” conflicts with “women’s calling”.

The party has been embroiled in a long legal battle about the role of women. In 2013, following rulings by the Dutch supreme court and the European Court of Human Rights, the SGP agreed to drop its ban on including women on candidate lists.

However, the party’s founding principles were not amended — a compromise seen at the time as politically strategic.

The current three MPs head the list of prospective MPs and the first new face – the leader of the party’s youth wing Johan Roodnat – is in 10th place on the list.