Mark Rutte and Rita “Iron Lady” Verdonk
Well, this is freaking great: as you all know my political party the VVD (conservatives) lost 6 seats during the elections last week. Earlier this year we had an election within the party about who would lead it. In those ‘internal’ elections, only members can vote. It is very easy and virtually free to become a member and thus influence the internal policies / views. Mark Rutte won those internal elections, Rita Verdonk, famous for causing the Ayaan controversy, lost them.
However, last week’s elections showed that Rita Verdonk is more popular among VVD-voters: for the first time in the history of the party (and every political party in the Netherlands actually) the #2 on the list received more votes than the #1 (the leader). Rita Verdonk has now decided that this created a precedent and has publicly called for the creation of a special committee that will investigate who should lead the VVD.
In short, she says that she should lead the VVD instead of Mark Rutte.
The VVD is now discussing this. Later tonight or tomorrow we will find out whether Verdonk will get what she wants: a change of leadership.
To be honest, I am quite livid. This is not how it works. The average voter does not decide who the leader of the VVD should be, the members do that. Want to influence that? Great, become a member.
Verdonk is a terrible loser. She lost the internal elections but during the campaign she already profiled herself as if she was the real leader of the VVD. We can now conclude that she did this on purpose, awaiting a possible loss for the VVD and a situation as exists today.
Will Rutte step down? If not, his position has been severely weakened. Not many people will take him seriously from now on. Why would they? Some people within his own party don’t acknowledge his authority.
If Verdonk gets away with this, I will have to reconsider my membership. I am disgusted by this. She represents the right wing within the party, one I cannot identify myself with. Yes I am very conservative, but I am not a populist. She is. The voters she attracts are not per definition the voters I want to be associated with.
Absolutely disgraceful.
