Party for the Animals

The Party for the Animals (Partij voor de Dieren, PvdD) is a political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare.

Since 2019, the PvdD's political leader is Esther Ouwehand. With 2.25% of the votes at the 2023 general election, the PvdD holds three of the 150 House of Representatives's seats. In the Senate, it has three of the 75 seats. PvdD holds 26 States-Provincial seats across all provinces. In the European Parliament, it has one of the 29 seats allocated to the Netherlands constituency.

Founding
The Party for the Animals was founded on 28 October 2002 by Marianne Thieme, among others. Although initially considered a testimonial party, a party which does not seek to gain political power but to testify its beliefs and thereby influence other parties, the party signaled its willingness to enter a coalition-government in 2021. The party today is a part of the governing coalitions in the municipalities of Almere, Arnhem and Groningen.

In 2003, the PvdD competed in its first Tweede Kamer election. Founded only three months before the elections, the party competed in 18 of the 19 constituencies, missing ballot access in Overijssel due to a clerical error. The party won 47,665 votes, gaining 75% of the electoral threshold, but missing out on a seat.

Electoral breakthrough
The electoral breakthrough for the PvdD occurred at the 2004 European elections. The party won 3.22% of the votes (153.432 votes), not enough to win a seat, but a sharp improvement compared to their 2003 result. In 2006 the party won their first seats in the Tweede Kamer, with Marianne Thieme and Esther Ouwehand being elected to parliament. The party gained a lot of attention due to a number of prominent lijstduwers, such as Paul Cliteur, Maarten 't Hart, Kees van Kooten, Rudy Kousbroek, Georgina Verbaan and Jan Wolkers.

The Party won nine seats in eight provinces in the 2007 Dutch provincial elections, securing one seat in the Eerste Kamer. In 2010, the party won representation on the local councils of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Arnhem, Gouda, Vlagtwedde and Pijnacker-Nootdorp; this meant that the PvdD secured representation on every level of government in the Netherlands.

In consequent elections, the electoral support for the PvdD remained relatively stable, winning two seats in the Tweede Kamer in 2010 and 2012. In 2014, the party won representation to the European parliament and joined the European United Left-Nordic Green Left parliamentary group.

In 2017, the party gained its best result to date, winning five seats in the Tweede Kamer. On 16 July 2019 Femke Merel van Kooten split from the PvdD caucus and continued as an independent member of parliament. The reason for the split was that Van Kooten criticized the narrow political focus of the party, which in her opinion focused too much on ecology and animal rights.

Ouwehand leadership
On 8 October 2019, founder and longtime leader Marianne Thieme retired from the leadership and the Tweede Kamer. Esther Ouwehand succeeded Thieme as parliamentary leader, and Eva van Esch replaced her as a member of parliament. She was previously a city council woman in Utrecht.

Ideology
Their main aim is to improve the life of animals and nature as a whole. They see the constant emphasis on economic growth as one of the main reasons for the lack of animal rights and is to blame for the state that nature currently is in. They want animal rights to be enshrined into the constitution.

In recent years, they have widened their scope to more than just animal rights, for example sustainability, healthcare, housing and more. They also strive for a shorter workweek and for a universal basic income.

PINK!
PINK! is the youth wing of the PvdD. It was established on 12 September 2006, and has slightly over 2,000 members (2021 figure). The name is derived from the Dutch word for a cow that is older than a calf, but not yet fully mature. The current chairperson, Xenia Minnaert, was elected in 2020.

Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation
The Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation is the research department of the PvdD. Founded in 2007, it is named after Niek Pierson, a Dutch economist and an early political donor of the party.

Animal Politics EU
Initially founded as Euro Animal 7, Animal Politics EU is an informal grouping of animal rights based political parties within the European Union. Animal Politics EU has member parties in the Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Spain. The group currently has one MEP: Anja Hazekamp of the PvdD. Martin Buschmann for the Tierschutzpartei was formerly an MEP in this group but is no longer as of 2020

Electorate
The electorate of the PvdD consists in majority of women (estimated at 70%) living in urban areas. In 2023 the party achieved its best results in Amsterdam (11.5%), Arnhem (8.8%), Bergen (8.3%), Haarlem (9.8%), Nijmegen (9.3%), Schiermonnikoog (9%) and Zutphen (8.7%). The party has lowest support in rural areas with large agricultural industries, such as in the Bible belt. It is supported by many organic farmers, and positions itself as a farmer's party which wants to free farmers from the big agricultural companies and their lobbyists, and help farmers transition to organic farming.

The PvdD has the largest proportion of vegan/vegetarian voters of any political party in the Netherlands, with 17.3% or 27.9% of PvdD voters in saying in two surveys in 2021 that they did not eat meat. The party with the second-highest proportion of vegan/vegetarian voters in both surveys was GroenLinks, for which the share laid at 8.4% or 16.9%.

In 2021, a survey by Katholiek Nieuwsblad found that Catholic voters make up greater share of the PvdD's electorate than those of denominationally Christian parties such as CDA, ChristenUnie and SGP. According to the Nieuwsblad's survey, Catholic voters tend to avoid denominationally Protestant or interconfessional parties and vote for strictly Catholic or secular ones in greater numbers instead. The newspaper also claimed that the voting behaviour of the PvdD and the SP is remarkably often in line with the moral views of the Catholic Church, and that "the social teachings of the Church are more progressive than is often thought". The former leader of the party, Marianne Thieme, often made appeals to Christian voters.

Municipalities
At the 2022 Dutch municipal elections, the PvdD won 63 seats, gaining representation in 29 municipalities. Party-wise, they have the most seats (4) in Leiden, Nijmegen and Groningen.

Members of the European Parliament
The MEPs of the Party for the Animals are part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left Group in the European parliament.