Dozens of local political parties plan to take legal action against the new name adopted by the GroenLinks-PvdA alliance, which wants to be known as PRO.

Officially, the new name is Progressief Nederland, and the two parties will formally merge on June 13. But they have opted to use PRO as a short form of their name and want this to be their formal moniker in parliament.

Some 50 local parties nationwide use PRO or Pro as part of their name, including Pro Vlissingen, Pro Eindhoven and Pro Veenendaal. And if the electoral council accepts PRO as the new name for the merged GroenLinks-PvdA, they will head to court, spokesman Dario Castiglione told broadcaster NOS.

The local parties, he says, think it is “incomprehensible” that the new party has opted for PRO when they have been using the word for years.

The name could also be a problem in the provincial elections – ProZeeland has been registered as a provincial party name since 2019.

Castiglione, a member of Pro Veenendaal, has been in touch with GroenLinks-PvdA officials and has a meeting planned for the end of the month. “We have nothing in common with the national GroenLinks-PvdA lot,” he said. “It would be so arrogant to think we are going to budge.”

A spokesman for the new party told NOS that he understood the local parties’ concerns. “We are fully confident that we can resolve this,” the spokesman said.