VVD senator resigns out of dissatisfaction with party, retains seat: "This course is incompatible with a liberal compass."
Another setback for the VVD: Senate member Cees van de Sanden is resigning, dissatisfied with the party's course. He will retain his seat and continue as an independent MP.
Van de Sanden has decided to split from the VVD party in the Senate, effective Wednesday, he told this website. He informed VVD party chair Tanja Klip this morning.
"In recent years, the VVD has increasingly drifted away from its own liberal core values. Decisions such as support for emergency asylum measures, the Uganda plan, the administrative ban on motorcycle gangs without judicial intervention, and the Antifa motion are at odds with the principles of freedom, equality, and the rule of law. I can no longer reconcile this course with my own liberal compass," said the resigned Senate member.
He reports that he shared his "concerns and suggestions" internally, but that this "didn't lead to a change of course." Therefore, he is now resigning. The senator doesn't want to return his seat to the VVD because he wants to continue championing his "liberal ideals, which, on paper, still belong to the VVD" in the Senate. "The VVD has abandoned its core values, and with them, me."
Tanja Klip, the VVD parliamentary group leader in the Senate, told this website that she was "completely taken aback" by Van de Sanden's decision: "Mr. Van de Sanden informed us this morning that he will no longer be part of our parliamentary group." She "regrets" his decision and is particularly unhappy that he is taking his seat with him.
Van de Sanden has now been a member of the Senate for a year, after having replaced Senator Paulien Geerdink for four months due to illness.
