March 7th, 2007

Dutch Provincial Assemblies: SP repeats parliamentary election triumph in regional poll

Socialistische Partij

Following its increase from nine to twenty-five parliamentary seats in last November’s election, the SP has marked another enormous electoral victory in today’s polls for the Netherlands’ regional governmental assemblies, the “Provinciale Staten”.

Tripling the proportion of votes it received at the last provincial election in 2003, the party saw its representation rise from 38 to 83 across the nation – despite a reduction in the total number of seats. It also had the satisfaction of seeing five members elected to the last Provincial Assembly where no SP representative had previously sat, the north-eastern region of Drenthe. The result also means that the SP’s group in the Senate, which is elected by Provincial Assembly members rather than directly by the voters, will rise in numbers from four to twelve. Read more »

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January 17th, 2007

The SP, a party with an international orientation

By Hans van Heijningen and Arjan Vliegenthart

Socialistische Partij

The SP has been unjustly reproached as a party which turns its back on all that lies beyond the Netherlands, a charge which fails to do justice to its international involvement in the struggle for a better and fairer world. The charge appears to be based on rancour, ignorance and a misguided vision of international solidarity, argue party secretary Hans van Heijningen and Arjan Vliegenthart of the SP’s research bureau.

According to Dick Pels in national daily Trouw (18 November 06), the SP promotes a “social nationalism that in some respects differs little from the much less social, Islamophobic nationalism of right wing groups such as EenNL.”(1) This is a charge which we have heard with increasing frequency in recent times from representatives of other parties, assorted (quasi-)intellectuals, newspaper columnists and cabaret performers. According to these people, the SP is in essence a nationalist, inward-looking party which at its best concerns itself with the old Netherlands welfare state, but considers everything that comes from outside our national borders to be strange and frightening. The arguments for such a view are based on the SP’s critical attitude to the current European integration process, the successful anti-Constitution campaign of 2005, and the party’s reservations when it comes to supporting purported peace-keeping missions abroad. Read more »

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Speech by Jan Marijnissen - leader of the Dutch Socialist Party (SP) - at the congress of the Norwegian Socialist Left Party (SV), that took place from March 22-25, 2007

The recent success of the SP has not gone unnoticed abroad, writes Jan Marijnissen. Although I have a real aversion to conferences, I was happy to accept an invitation to speak at the Congress of the SV, the Socialist Left Party, in Norway. From Friday to Sunday I was in Oslo in order to attend their first Congress since their entry into the government whose other members are the social democrats and a centrist farmers’ party.

Together with the SP’s Senate leader Tiny Kox I used the many conversations that we were able to have with MPs, government ministers and delegates from other countries to stir up the various themes which are current elsewhere in Europe: the future of the EU (of which Norway is, moreover, not a member), of NATO (of which Norway is indeed a member), public services in a neoliberal age, problematic relations with social democracy, Iraq, Afghanistan and a great deal more.

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Dutch Provincial Assemblies: SP repeats parliamentary election triumph in regional poll

The SP, a party with an international orientation

By Hans van Heijningen and Arjan Vliegenthart

Jan Marijnissen addresses Norwegian Socialist Left

Speech by Jan Marijnissen - leader of the Dutch Socialist Party (SP) - at the congress of the Norwegian Socialist Left Party (SV), that took place from March 22-25, 2007