Groningen, May 1, 2025.
Dear party members, red friends, green friends, and red-green friends,
On May 1, we celebrate our ideals. We celebrate what we believe in, what we have all achieved. We celebrate the labor movement and pay tribute to all those who have dedicated themselves under the banner of solidarity for another.
But it is also a day to look ahead. To what we want to achieve, to what we are fighting for together. As a red-green movement. That is the hope that we as leftist politics can offer. What is also longed for. These are dark times. Around the world, autocratic leaders are rising, and democracy is increasingly under pressure. The foundations of the democratic rule of law - science, free media, strong civil society organizations - are being dismissed as left, as woke. As Europe, we are squeezed between great powers that are pursuing their own agenda. There is little room for solidarity in a world order based on power and strength. Decades of neoliberal politics have weakened our society and our citizenship. We need the left now more than ever. We need our collective movement now more than ever. Our ideals, our determination.
After decades of neoliberal politics, the left must build again. Build based on three promises.
Suzanne Kröger – Member of Parliament and spokesperson for climate GroenLinks-PvdA
The first is a new welfare state. With a solid social foundation for everyone, for now and for future generations. A new welfare state requires a government that takes the wheel again. Public housing, energy, healthcare, public transport: it has all been left to the market. The government must take care of what is in our common interest. And a government that cares must also safeguard the green boundaries. Nature, water, biodiversity. A social foundation and green boundaries. Green politics and social politics go hand in hand. An economic system that operates on the exploitation of workers and nature is the underlying problem. Our answer is to see progress not as a steam train on its way to more, more, more but as laying the foundation for a sustainable and just society. That is in stark contrast to the VVDs plea for radical growth. Growth without regard for people, for nature, is not growth but plunder.
The second promise is that we stand for the collective, for strong communities. Those decades of neoliberal politics have turned us all into consumers, and society into a market. We have come to stand against each other as individuals, instead of alongside each other as people. We must rediscover the power of the collective. For that, we need a government that cares, but also trusts. That dares to give authority, direction, and ownership to all those who are active, who unite in cooperatives, resident organizations, village councils. Or those who are eager to do so. In recent decades, business has been the main partner of the government. Major issues were resolved in public-private partnerships. I advocate for a new covenant. Between government and citizen. For public-collective cooperation. Because while trust in politics and the political bubble in The Hague may decrease, there is a strong undercurrent that is growing. That is taking action. That is shaping society together from citizenship, from ideals, from activism.
Finally, the third promise: we must build a broad, leftist, progressive alliance. The cooperation between GroenLinks and PvdA in a new party is crucial. But our movement must not stop there. We must avoid a bunker mentality, a party that is mainly concerned with itself, as is often the case in The Hague. We must open ourselves up. To the trade union movement, the climate movement, local initiatives that want to make the world more social and greener. To activists and entrepreneurs. To the undercurrent full of energy that bubbles and bursts. That is where the energy is. That is where the potential lies to stand together with others against the right-wing, populist, anti-democratic forces. That is the strength to bring a world of connection and solidarity closer. The labor movement set a good example. We honor what they have achieved best with our united efforts for the red-green struggle that lies ahead of us. And in that, we need everyone!
Thank you all,