Livable Rotterdam
Livable Rotterdam Leefbaar Rotterdam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Simon Ceulemans |
| Chairman | Pieter van Hoof |
| Founder | Ronald Sørensen |
| Founded | December 2001 |
| Headquarters | Rotterdam |
| Ideology | Conservative liberalism Localism Fortuynism |
| Political position | Right-wing[1] |
| National affiliation | Livable Netherlands (2001-2002) Pim Fortuyn List (2002) Forum for Democracy (2018–2020) JA21 (2021–present),(partial)[2] |
| Colours | Green & Black |
| Municipal council of Rotterdam | 10 / 45 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Livable Rotterdam (Dutch: Leefbaar Rotterdam) is a conservative liberal and localist political party in the municipality of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which was founded by Ronald Sørensen in 2001. The party was founded at the same time as a number of Leefbaar (Livable) parties which contested municipal and local elections as alternatives to the main Dutch parties.
History
[edit]Livable Rotterdam was founded by former teacher, union spokesman and former Labour Party member Ronald Sørensen and his wife. Sørensen said that his main ambition for forming the party was because he did not agree with the way things were going in national politics. After forming the party, he contacted Pim Fortuyn and asked him to front the party's campaign for the 2002 local election in Rotterdam. Livable Rotterdam won the council elections of March 2002 due to the charismatic leadership of Fortuyn who had been selected as the party's lead candidate. This made it the city's largest political party, a position which for the previous thirty years had been held by the Labour Party.
Livable Rotterdam was started as a spin-off of the national party Livable Netherlands but is commonly seen as the local party of the LPF (Pim Fortuyn List), the national party of Pim Fortuyn which was founded just after Pim Fortuyn was fired as lijsttrekker of the Livable Netherlands party in spring 2002. Both Livable Rotterdam and the LPF are considered to have similar policy ideas. After the LPF was dissolved in 2008, Livable Rotterdam was associated with the Forum for Democracy (FvD) party for a brief period in 2018 before distancing itself from the FvD. Today, Livable Rotterdam has connections with the JA21 party founded by Livable Rotterdam member Joost Eerdmans.[3][4] Although not an officially associated party, some elected representatives of Livable Rotterdam such as Barry Madlener and Ehsan Jami are members of Geert Wilders' PVV which campaigns on similar issues at a national level. Sørensen previously served as a Senator for the PVV.[5]
The party consists of numerous members that are new to politics and were attracted to Fortuyn's dreams of political change. The party attracts attention and criticism for the upfront behavior of its members and its unconventional, if sometimes right-leaning vision, especially on issues of immigration, crime and inter-culture tolerance.
In the municipal elections of 7 March 2006, Livable Rotterdam lost 5%, dropping to 29.7% of their votes and PvdA gained 15%, making the latter the biggest party again, with 37.4% of the votes. Before the elections, Livable Rotterdam declared it would not enter in a coalition with PvdA and several members even declared that, irrespective of the coalition, they would leave the council if PvdA would become the biggest party (which has happened).
After the municipal elections of 3 March 2010 the Public Prosecutor in Rotterdam launched an investigation into how proxy votes were solicited by the party, after an e-mail emerged in which one of the party’s councillors gives tips on how to accumulate these. Ronald Buijt wrote that he had 50 reliable citizens of the city who could take the proxy votes to the polling stations. The electoral council said this went against the spirit of proxy voting, which should only be used at the initiative of the voter. This irregularity was added to a litany of complaints against the poll in Rotterdam in these elections (many of which were caused by the PvdA), which resulted in a recount of all the votes cast. Back then the PvdA only beat Livable Rotterdam by a mere 650 votes, yet both parties had 14 seats in the city council.[6][7]
Joost Eerdmans was elected lijsttrekker of Livable Rotterdam on 6 October 2013.[8] Under his leadership, the party won the 2014 municipal election, retaining its fourteen seats. Since 8 May 2014, Livable Rotterdam leads a coalition with CDA and D66.[9]
As of 2022, the party leads a new coalition with VVD, D66 and Denk [10]
Electoral results
[edit]| Election | Leader | Votes | Seats | Position | Coalition | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | ± | ||||
| 2002 | Pim Fortuyn | 93,852 | 37.8 | 17 / 45
|
 17
|
1st
|
Coalition with CDA and VVD |
| 2006 | Marco Pastors | 77,284 | 29.7 | 14 / 45
|
 3
|
2nd
|
Opposition |
| 2010 | Marco Pastors | 63,647 | 28.6 | 14 / 45
|
 0
|
2nd
|
Opposition |
| 2014 | Joost Eerdmans | 59,505 | 27.5 | 14 / 45
|
0
|
1st
|
Coalition with D66 and CDA |
| 2018 | Joost Eerdmans | 47,312 | 20.5 | 11 / 45
|
3
|
1st
|
Opposition |
| 2022 | Robert Simons | 39.972 | 20.01 | 10 / 45
|
1
|
1st
|
Coalition with VVD, D66 and DENK |
References
[edit]- ^ "5 redenen waarom Geert Wilders overal in de regio de winnaar van de verkiezingen werd". 26 November 2023.
- ^ "JA21: Als Joost Eerdmans Leefbaar Rotterdam niet bij elkaar kon houden, waarom JA21 dan wel?". 18 December 2020.
- ^ FVD en Leefbaar Rotterdam starten alliantie! Archived 23 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine Forum voor Democratie, 13 juni 2017
- ^ "JA21: Als Joost Eerdmans Leefbaar Rotterdam niet bij elkaar kon houden, waarom JA21 dan wel?". 18 December 2020.
- ^ Nevin Atici & Eefje Oomen "Uit de schaduw van Fortuyn; Rotterdam is onveilig en vies vinden de nieuwe fractieleden", Rotterdams Dagblad, 9 maart 2002
- ^ ""Rotterdam to investigate proxy voting"". Archived from the original on 2010-03-12. Retrieved 2010-03-11.
- ^ "After Florida and Harare, a recount in Rotterdam"
- ^ (in Dutch) Joost Eerdmans lijsttrekker van Leefbaar Rotterdam, LeefbaarRotterdam.nl, 6 October 2013
- ^ "Coalitieakkoord 2014-2018 Volle Kracht Vooruit" (PDF). Leefbaar Rotterdam (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 July 2014.
- ^ "Leefbaar and Denk cross boundaries to run city council in Rotterdam". 8 June 2022.
External links
[edit]
- Official website (in Dutch)