History of the PvdA

The Dutch Labour Party, the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA), was founded in 1946. It was the successor of the pre-war Social Democratic Labour Party (SDAP) which originally had been formed in 1894.
The new party aimed at breaking through the strict political, Social and religious segregation, by which Dutch society at that time was characterised (the 'famous' Dutch 'pillarisation'; a compartmentalisation of society along socio-political and religious lines.)
 
To achieve this, the ties with the labour movement were placed within the wider context of a people's party, designed to appeal to the progressive middle ground. In the beginning this new approach seemed to work, however, within a few years the PvdA's electoral support had returned to what it essentially was for the SDAP. No real breakthrough was achieved.
 
Nevertheless, the PvdA played an important role in the post-war reconstruction in the Netherlands. The Social Democrats participated in various governments in which the Catholic People's Party (KVP) was their main coalition partner. For ten years, PvdA-leader Willem Drees was Prime Minister. But in 1958 the age of political consensus had come to an end, which meant the succession of catholic-labour coalitions.
 
It was not until 1965 when the PvdA joined the government again. In 1965-66, 1973-77 and 1981-82 the party participated in Dutch government. However, tensions between the PvdA and the confessional parties often led to the premature end of these coalitions. These tensions increased with the rise of a new generation within the PvdA which came into existence after 1966, the so-called 'New Left.' This group wanted party policy to reflect the new social and cultural realities and emphasised the need for greater democracy and a critical attitude towards NATO and American policies. In 1973 this culminated, in a coalition with a number of small progressive parties on the one side and confessional parties on the other, in the first post-war cabinet dominated by a coalition of left-wing parties, under PvdA leader Joop den Uyl. It was under this government that the final elements to the welfare state were added, originally started in 1945.
 
Attempts to reform the economy and change the role of government failed because of the opposition of the confessional parties. In 1981-82, the coalition with the newly formed Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) - a merger of the Catholic and two Protestant parties - collapsed for the same reason, only this time even sooner.
 
Between 1982 and 1989 the PvdA was in opposition again. The Dutch cabinet consisted of a 'no nonsense' combination of CDA and conservative liberal VVD. The PvdA refused to join the coalition because of the lack of uniformity on how to handle the economic crisis and defence policy. The right-wing parties favoured strict measures and supported the deployment of new US cruise missiles with nuclear warheads in Dutch bases.
 
The turning point
 
The elections of 1986 were a turning point for the PvdA. Although the party gained several seats, it was not enough to bring down the right-wing coalition. The highly polarised political landscape had failed to deliver the expected reward. In the years that followed and now under the leadership of Wim Kok, the PvdA now adopted more moderate policies after intense debates on reform of the party programme.
 
Although this new direction failed to ensure electoral success - in the general elections of 1989 the party lost three seats - it did lead to a re-entry into government. Together with the CDA, the PvdA formed a cabinet headed by Ruud Lubbers and Wim Kok, who became Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. This coalition focussed on the reduction of the budget deficit, social renewal in the larger cities, environment, education, fair income distribution, reduction in defence and international co-operation.
 
Under this cabinet, the debate about the PvdA's new identity continued. But the world seemed to be changing faster then the party could keep pace. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern European revolutions, the victory of the market and liberalism seemed complete. In spite of many efforts to create a new, modern form of Social democracy the PvdA's electoral appeal diminished.
 
The party lost twelve seats in the elections of 1994. But the CDA's experienced even greater losses. The PvdA became the largest party. This resulted in the exclusion of the Christian democrats, a unique event in Dutch politics. PvdA leader Wim Kok became Prime Minister heading a coalition with the VVD and leftist liberal party D66. This coalition became known as the `Purple Coalition', because of the unique co-operation of Red and Blue.
 
In 1998 a new Government came into being as a result of the general elections held in May of that year. In the election campaign the party adopted `Strong and Social' as its central message, positioning leader Wim Kok as the future Prime Minister. The PvdA did very well and gained a total of 45 seats in Parliament; almost a third of the available 150 seats. Before the elections the 'Purple Coalition' expressed its explicit wish to continue their successful co-operation. Although D66 lost ten seats against an increase of 8 for the PvdA and 7 for VVD, this pre-election promise was kept and the second `Purple Coalition' was formed.
 
The PvdA in Government
 
The main policy themes of the first "Purple" Government were employment (`Jobs, jobs, jobs!') and reducing the budget deficit. Moderate wage rises, reducing the tax burden for businesses and workers, supported by investments in the economy and other severe measures helped to reduce the deficit and to create more than halve a million new jobs (`The Dutch Job Machine'). To ensure the functioning of the social security system, now and in the future, several significant reforms were implemented. Meanwhile, further measures were taken to improve the infrastructure, to stimulate public transport, to support the environment and to fight crime. Special attention was paid to employment prospects for those living in the larger cities.
 
The results were impressive: the PvdA succeeded in strengthening the economy and reforming the social security system at the same time. Next to employment, social security, education and healthcare, other consistent themes on the party's agenda are environmental considerations, gender emancipation, (international) solidarity and infrastructure.  The Dutch economy was doing so well that unemployment is on the lowest European level apart from Luxemburg. For the first time in decades there was a surplus on the account of the Dutch State, which made it possible to cut down the impressive state debt and to invest in the quality of Dutch society.
 
In the spring of 2000 a plan was presented by the Parliamentary Group of the PvdA that intended to invest the coming years in economic power and social quality. Under the title `Power and Quality, intelligent investments in a strong and social society,’ Ad Melkert, the group leader presented the plans of the PvdA Group to make the Netherlands stronger and more social. The following years the PvdA wanted to invest in education, care, security, leave, day care centres, the environment and infrastructure. Special emphasis was put on the necessity to invest in education to make the Dutch “Knowledge Economy” more competitive in the world.
 
2002
 
2002 was a dramatic year in Dutch politics and society. Pim Fortuyn, the leader of a new populist party was brutally murdered. Instead of voting PvdA, a large part of the Dutch people voted the traditional confessional party (CDA) and newly established party ‘Lijst Pim Fortuyn’ (LPF). The Dutch Labour Party, after a long period of governing, came in opposition again. Ad Melkert resigned as party leader and was succeeded by Jeltje van Nieuwenhoven.
 
Party renewal and new elections
 
When adapting itself to the new demands of Dutch society, the PvdA regained trust of the Dutch people. The PvdA took the loss of the elections very serious and started a major party reform, in which they tackled difficult political debates and implemented a more internal party democracy. Wouter Bos was elected party leader after the fist referendum amongst the party members and he led the PvdA during the 2003 elections, after the government coalition led by Prime Minister Balkenende, leader of the Christian Democrats (CDA), fell (after just a few months in power). As a consequence of the party renewal and the new style of leadership of Wouter Bos, a very large part the Dutch people voted Labour again in 2003.  After harsh negotiations with the Christian Democrats the PvdA was left out of the coalition and stayed in opposition.

The elections for the European Parliament in 2004 were also clear about preferences of the Dutch: the PvdA gained many votes and gained its biggest win in European elections ever.

2006

In March 2006, local elections were held in the Netherlands in which the PvdA won landslide. This was a unique event since the Dutch Labour Party, for the first time in history, gained a larger number of seats in local councils than the Christian Democrats. The ambition of the PvdA was to compensate the loss of 200 seats of the 2002 local elections. However, the results were even better than expected. The PvdA gained 695 seats compared to 2002.

General elections in 2006
The last general elections in the Netherlands were held in November 2006. The PvdA had been in opposition. Despite losing 25% of it’s seats in parliament compared to the 2003 elections, the PvdA joined a coalition with the Christian Democrats (the biggest party after the 2006 elections) and a small Christian party called Christian Union. Difficult government negotiations followed. Jan Peter Balkenende, leader of the Christian Democrats became prime minister of his 4th government. The 3 government coalitions he has lead before all ended in break-ups. On 20 February 2010 his 4th government collapsed over the decision on the Dutch participation in the ISAF mission of NATO in Afghanistan.

The local elections of March 2010
On 3 March 2010 local elections were held in the Netherlands. In 2006 the PvdA did extremely well during the local elections. The best result ever at the local level for the PvdA, with an average of 23,2%. Local parties always are the strongest force during local elections in the Netherlands. Although PvdA lost a substantial number of seats during the 2010 local elections, the loss was much smaller than predicted.
  
General elections on 9 June 2010
Early elections will be held on 9 June 2010, one year ahead of schedule. Until that date the Christian Democrats and Christian Union will deal with matters in hand as a caretaker government. The PvdA at the moment is the largest opposition party in the country. In March 2010 party leader Wouter Bos announced his resignation, because he wants to spend less time away from home being a father of young children.
At the same day Job Cohen announced that he is candidate for the position of party leader. On 25 April 2009 by the PvdA congress, Job Cohen is formally elected party leader.