Ton F. van Dijk, founder of the National Political Index (NPI), which measures the effectiveness of members of parliament, concludes from his report that the Freedom Party, as the largest government party, lags behind the other major parties.
With 37 seats, the Freedom Party is the largest party in the House of Representatives and the largest government party. The GroenLinks-PvdA is the largest opposition party with 25 seats in the House of Representatives. It has around 46,000 points, while the Freedom Party has around half. “This is a first indication that the Freedom Party is performing relatively less well than the other major parties,” says Van Dijk on the radio programme Sven op 1.
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Petitions
The fact that the PVV is mainly made up of new MPs plays a role in this, but according to Van Dijk this applies to all parties. He cites the BBB and the NSC as examples. The BBB had the best per seat: 2,496 points, followed by the NSC with 2,068 points. “The PVV has 762 points. That’s a really big difference.”
The NPI arrives at these scores based on 27 indicators. These range from legislative functions and oversight of MPs to popular representation. Adoption of petitions is also one of the indicators, and Van Dijk sees the PVV scoring low. “The PVV received only 43 petitions, compared to 80 petitions submitted by GroenLinks-PvdA. I find that very striking.”
Listen to Sven op 1 now as a podcast. Transcript continues below.
“PVV at the bottom everywhere”
Party leader Geert Wilders is the highest-ranking member of the Freedom Party on the list, which is led by Peter Greenweiss of the Christian Union. “The picture that emerges from these figures is that there is only one person in charge in the Freedom Party: Geert Wilders himself.”
Another conclusion Van Dijk draws is that PVV members are “less interested in traditional parliamentary work than many other parties, because the PVV is at the bottom of the lists everywhere.”
VVD
Number three on the NPI list is VVD MP Silvio Erkens. He says he sees differences in the new government outside parliament compared to the previous one.
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.@Silvio Erkins @VVD He feels he has room to express his opinion on matters and proposals in the House of Representatives. He added, “I am not bound by everything that will be agreed upon now. As a faction, we are committed to the main agreement, but I will be given more room to do so.” #WNL pic.twitter.com/had6tZMEqk
– Sven Op 1 (@Sven_op_1) August 27, 2024
“I feel there is room to come up with proposals. I am not bound by whatever is reached now. As a group, we are committed to the main agreement, but I will have more room to do that in the coming months.
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