“In order to guarantee human dignity, equality and solidarity, a democratic revolution is first necessary.” This is in a proposal for a new basic program of the SP. It was presented this morning by former MP Van Raak. This happened at a meeting in Amersfoort, where the party was celebrating its anniversary. Today it is fifty years since the SP was founded.

Under the proposal, market forces have placed local government in the hands of profit-hungry corporations and democratic control has disappeared. Van Raak’s program states that “it’s no longer markets, it should be people who call the shots”.

In Amersfoort, party leader Marijnissen joined the call for democratization. “Perhaps our party’s image is that government is the solution to everything, while we rather believe in at least democratizing the common good. This is the only way to break through the cynicism of many people.”

“Energy supply not on the market”

According to Van Raak, too many politicians believed in the “neoliberal promise that the free market would lead to freer societies”. He writes that “what cannot go bankrupt does not belong on the market” and that applies to all public institutions. According to SP, this also includes energy.

The party recently launched a petition to nationalize energy. “Because our energy supply has been privatised, we no longer have any say. Commercial companies increase our energy bills and get rich while we’re out in the rain,” the SP petition reads.

The SP will discuss the new basic program in the near future, and the party is supposed to adopt it in June next year.

In Amersfoort, Marijnissen said that she would like to work with other parties, but she has no desire to join the PvdA and GroenLinks bloc. The SP now has 9 seats in the House of Representatives and ranks 7th to 9th in the Polling Indicator (a weighted average of polls by I&O Research, Ipsos/EenVandaag and Kantar).