View source for The Greens (Netherlands)

{{short description|Political party in the Netherlands}}
{{Distinguish|GroenLinks}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{COI|date=July 2018}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2018}}
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2015}}
{{Infobox political party
| country          = the Netherlands
| native_name      = De Groenen
| logo             = De Groenen logo.svg
| logo_size        = 220px
| colorcode        = {{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}
| chairperson      = Angela Zikking (acting)<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.degroenen.nl/adressen.html| website=De Groenen| title=addressen| language=nl |trans-title=addresses}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=July 2018}}
| foundation       = {{Start date|1983|12|17|df=y}}
| ideology         = [[Green politics]]
| position         = [[Centre-left politics|Centre-left]]
| international    = [[Global Greens]]
| european         = [[European Green Party]]
| europarl         = 
| colours          = Green
| headquarters     = De Groenen <br /> Oudegracht 60 <br /> NL-3511 AS [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]]
| website          = {{Official URL}}
| seats1_title     = [[House of Representatives (Netherlands)|Seats in the House of Representatives]]
| seats1           = {{Composition bar|0|150|{{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| seats2_title     = [[Senate (Netherlands)|Seats in the Senate]]
| seats2           = {{Composition bar|0|75|{{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| seats3_title     = [[Provincial council (Netherlands)|States-Provincial]]
| seats3           = {{Composition bar|0|566|{{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| seats4_title     = [[Water board (Netherlands)|Amstel, Gooi en Vecht Water Board]]
| seats4           = {{Composition bar|1|26|{{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
}}
{{Green politics sidebar}}
{{Politics of the Netherlands}}
'''The Greens''' (DG, ''De Groenen'') is a [[List of political parties in the Netherlands|political party]] in the [[Netherlands]]. It advocates for [[Green politics]], an unconditional [[basic income]] and emphasises its [[anti-militarism]].

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2016}}
A group of Dutch environmentalists led by Marten Bierman founded The Greens on 17 December 1983. They entered the European elections under the name "European Greens" since the name "The Greens" was controlled by [[Bas de Gaay Fortman]]. The party's foundation was supported by the [[Francophone]] Belgian green party [[Ecolo]], while the [[German Greens]] supported the [[Green Progressive Accord]]. The party became involved in the formation of the [[European Green Party|Coordination of European Green Parties]]. It won 1.3% of vote in the [[1984 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|1984 European parliament election]], below the threshold of 4% for a seat.

For the [[1986 Dutch general election|1986 national elections]], the party used now the name "The Greens", which was abandoned. With Marten Bierman as top-candidate, it won 0.2% of the votes, below the threshold of 0.7% for a seat. The party had a federal structure consisting of provincial parties. In 1987, The Greens participated in the North Holland, South Holland and Gelderland provincial elections. They won one seat on the [[States of North Holland]], partially because of the support of Green Amsterdam led by [[Roel van Duijn]]. On March 10, 1989 Green Amsterdam merged with The Greens.

In 1989, [[GroenLinks]] was formed by a merger of PPR, PSP, CPN and the [[Christian left]] [[Evangelical People's Party (Netherlands)|Evangelical People's Party]]. The Greens rejected to join the merger because it emphasised social-economic issues too much and environmental issues too little. Independently, they participated in the [[1989 Dutch general election|1989 elections]] with Roel van Duijn as their [[Lijsttrekker|top candidate]]. The party won 0.35% of votes, below the threshold. The party abandoned its federal structure in 1992.

For the [[1994 Dutch general election|Dutch general election of 1994]], GroenLinks proposed a candidate chosen by The Greens on place 10 on their list, but this was rejected by The Green's Congress. The party entered the election with Hein Westerouen van Meeteren as top-candidate and won 0.2% of vote. In the 1994 municipal elections the party expanded its number of seats and won seats in [[Leiden]], [[Nijmegen]], [[Zwolle]] and [[Amsterdam]]. In 1991, GroenLinks [[Member of the European Parliament|MEP]] [[Herman Verbeek]] left his party and continued as an independent. He became a member of The Greens in 1994 and led their European list in the [[1994 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|European Parliament election]]. The party won 2.36% of vote, below the threshold.

In 1995, the party contested several provincial elections. It won seats in North Holland and [[States of South Holland|South Holland]] (on a combined GroenLinks/The Greens list). The party cooperated with several provincial parties to form a common list for the indirect elections for the [[Senate of the Netherlands|Senate]] by the [[States-Provincial]]. The first seat was taken by the "Federation of Frisian Municipal-interest Parties" and the second by Marten Bierman. Bierman was elected by [[Ranked voting|preference votes]]. He formed a separate [[Independent Senate Fraction]], a novelty in Dutch politics. Before no group had previously had representation in the Senate without also being present in the [[House of Representatives of the Netherlands|House of Representatives]]. In the [[1998 Dutch general election|1998 elections]] the party participated with Jaap Dirkmaat as top-candidate and won 0.2% of the votes. The party did keep its seats in municipal councils and expanded to [[Haarlem]], [[Zeist]], [[Arnhem]], [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]] and [[Haren, Groningen|Haren]].

The Greens have not participated in the Dutch general elections since 1998. The party received 0.19% of the vote in the [[2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|European elections of 2009]] and 0.23% of the vote in the [[2014 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|European elections of 2014]].

By 2017, the party was split into two conflicting groups both claiming legitimacy with the total party membership being 33. One faction held a congress with 10 attendees which elected Otto ter Haar party leader.<ref>{{cite web |title=REPORT - Scouting mission to Netherlands/De Groenen 17/18th March 2017, Amsterdam/Rotterdam |url=https://europeangreens.eu/sites/europeangreens.eu/files/Annex%201%20Report%20scouting%20mission%20to%20Netherlands%20De%20Groenen%2017%20March%202017_0.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710163938/https://europeangreens.eu/sites/europeangreens.eu/files/Annex%201%20Report%20scouting%20mission%20to%20Netherlands%20De%20Groenen%2017%20March%202017_0.pdf |archive-date=July 10, 2018 |website=[[European Greens]]}}</ref>

== Election results ==
=== House of Representatives ===
The Greens have participated in five elections, failing to pass the threshold of 0,67 percent on each occasion.
{| class="wikitable"
! Election
! [[Lead candidate]]
! List
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! Government
|-
! [[1986 Dutch general election|1986]]
| Marten Bierman
| align="left"| [[List of The Greens candidates in the 1986 Dutch general election|List]]
| 18,641
| 0.20
| {{Composition bar|0|150|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| New
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
! [[1989 Dutch general election|1989]]
| Roel van Duijn
| align="left"| [[List of The Greens candidates in the 1989 Dutch general election|List]]
| 31,312
| 0.35
| {{Composition bar|0|150|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
! [[1994 Dutch general election|1994]]
| Hein Westerouen van Meeteren
| align="left"| [[List of The Greens candidates in the 1994 Dutch general election|List]]
| 13,902 
| 0.15
| {{Composition bar|0|150|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
! [[1998 Dutch general election|1998]]
| Jaap Dirkmaat
| align="left"| [[List of The Greens candidates in the 1998 Dutch general election|List]]
| 16,585
| 0.19
| {{Composition bar|0|150|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
! [[2021 Dutch general election|2021]]
| Otto ter Haar
| align="left"| [[List of The Greens candidates in the 2021 Dutch general election|List]]
| 119
| 0.00
| {{Composition bar|0|150|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
! [[2023 Dutch general election|2023]]{{efn|Run in a joint list with [[Pirate Party (Netherlands)|PPNL]].}}
| Mark van Treuren
| align="left"| [[List of Pirate Party–The Greens candidates in the 2023 Dutch general election|List]]
| 9,117
| 0.09
| {{Composition bar|0|150|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
| {{no|Extra-parliamentary}}
|-
|}
{{Notelist}}

=== European Parliament ===
The Greens is a founding party of the [[European Green Party]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://europeangreens.eu/content/green-parties|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515203006/http://europeangreens.eu/content/green-parties|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 15, 2012|title=Green Parties |website=European Greens}}</ref><br />
The Greens participated since 1984 six times in the European elections.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Election
! List
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! EP Group
|-
! [[1984 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|1984]]
| [[Party lists in the 1984 European Parliament election in the Netherlands#European Greens|'''List''']]
| 67,413
| 1.27 (#8)
| {{Composition bar|0|25|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| New
| rowspan="6" | –
|-
! [[1994 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|1994]]
| [[Party lists in the 1994 European Parliament election in the Netherlands#The Greens|'''List''']]
| 97,206
| 2.35 (#7)
| {{Composition bar|0|31|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
|-
! [[2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|2009]]
| [[Party lists in the 2009 European Parliament election in the Netherlands#The Greens|'''List''']]
| 8,517
| 0.19 (#14)
| {{Composition bar|0|25|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
|-
! [[2014 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|2014]]
| [[Party lists in the 2014 European Parliament election in the Netherlands#The Greens|'''List''']]
| 10,883
| 0.23 (#14)
| {{Composition bar|0|26|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
|-
! [[2019 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|2019]]
| [[Party lists in the 2019 European Parliament election in the Netherlands#The Greens|'''List''']]
| 9,546
| 0.17 (#15)
| {{Composition bar|0|26|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
|-
! [[2024 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|2024]]{{efn|In a joint list with [[Pirate Party (Netherlands)|Pirate Party]].}}
| [[Party lists in the 2024 European Parliament election in the Netherlands#Pirate Party - The Greens|'''List''']]
| 23,764
| 0.38 (#16)
| {{Composition bar|0|31|hex={{party color|The Greens (Netherlands)}}}}
| {{steady}} 0
|}
{{Notelist}}

== States-Provincial ==
The Greens have been elected in the [[States of North Holland]] between 1987 and 2003, [[States of South Holland|South Holland]] (1995–1999) and [[States of Gelderland|Gelderland]] (1995–2003).

== Municipal councils ==
The Greens have been elected in the municipal councils of [[Amsterdam]], [[Leiden]], [[Zwolle]], [[Nijmegen]], [[Haarlem]] and [[Haren, Groningen|Haren]].{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

== Water boards ==
In March 2015 The Greens were elected to the [[Water board (Netherlands)|water board]] of [[Government of Amsterdam|Amstel, Gooi en Vecht]] with 23,604 votes (5.9%).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.agv.nl/over-het-waterschap/bestuur-en-organisatie/meer-over-het-bestuur/meer-over-de-waterschapsverkiezingen/definitieve-uitslag-waterschapsverkiezingen-in-waterschap-amstel,-gooi-en-vecht/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304072300/http://www.agv.nl/over-het-waterschap/bestuur-en-organisatie/meer-over-het-bestuur/meer-over-de-waterschapsverkiezingen/definitieve-uitslag-waterschapsverkiezingen-in-waterschap-amstel,-gooi-en-vecht/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |title=election result AGV |language=nl |website=www.agv.nl}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Environment|Ecology}}
*[[Green party]]
*[[List of environmental organizations]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Official website}}

{{Political parties in the Netherlands}}
{{Green parties}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greens}}
[[Category:Green political parties in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Political parties in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1983]]
[[Category:Political parties supporting universal basic income]]
[[Category:European Green Party]]
[[Category:Global Greens member parties]]
[[Category:1983 establishments in the Netherlands]]