Van Baarle quits as Denk leader in row over election candidates

Stephan van Baarle has quit as leader of left-wing party Denk in an apparent conflict with the party’s management board.

Van Baarle announced on social media platform X, better known as Twitter, that he was stepping down “with pain in my heart” but refused to elaborate on his decision.

Other prominent party members, including Denk’s other two MPs, immediately pointed the finger at party chairman Ejder Köse, accusing him of “unacceptable behaviour”.

MP Dogukan Ergin said Köse had “undermined our political leader in a crude and humiliating manner” and called for the chairman to resign.

“We stand fully behind Van Baarle,” Ergin wrote in a joint statement with the third Denk MP, Ismail el Abassi. “There is only one option: he is the only true party leader and the management board must therefore resign immediately.”

Met pijn in mijn hart trek ik mij terug als lijsttrekker.
Het handelen van het partijbestuur heeft mijn rol als lijsttrekker ondermijnd en onmogelijk gemaakt en dwingt mij tot deze stap.
DENK verdient rust. De partij is groter dan ons allemaal. Verder geef ik dus geen commentaar.

— Stephan van Baarle (@StephanvBaarle) August 14, 2025

According to Trouw, the dispute centres on the selection of candidates for the upcoming general election, with Van Baarle complaining that the list drawn up by the management committee was not sufficiently diverse. Köse is alleged to have told Van Baarle to “like it or lump it.”

Van Baarle has been leader of Denk since 2023, when he succeeded Farid Azarkan, having previously represented the party on Rotterdam city council.

PvdA breakaway

Denk was founded in 2015 by two MPs who were expelled from the Labour party (PvdA) the year before after criticising deputy prime minister Lodewijk Asscher’s stance on Muslim organisations. The party draws its support mainly from minority ethnic communities in the major cities.

Van Baarle was seen as a popular leader who was one of the most vocal critics of Geert Wilders’ PVV party, denouncing the recent right-wing government as “the most racist cabinet ever” after Wilders pulled out of the four-party coalition in June.

Opinion polls put the party on course to win between two and four seats in the election on June 29.

But Denk has been blighted during its short history by internal rows. Founding leader Tunahan Kuzu quit in 2020 when an affair with a female colleague was exposed by his fellow MP Selçuk Öztürk, while Azarkan, who succeeded him, was briefly expelled for “rebelling” against the party hierarchy by taking Kuzu’s side.