Popular Dutch politician shakes up November election with new party

Pieter Omtzigt, a longtime member of the Dutch center-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), has created a new party to fight for votes in November’s election.

Omtzigt announced the new party, called New Social Contract, on social media on Sunday night, and gave some more details during an interview with Dutch newspaper Tubantia.

“I look forward to working with a great group of people to really implement the proposals we have made in the chamber in recent years in the field of good governance and livelihood security, for example,” Omtzigt — who initially left the CDA in 2021 to become an independent — said on his website.

The party does not have a list of candidates yet, but Omtzigt said they are “talking to people.”

“Next week there will be a call on our website for people who want to join us to come forward,” he said. “We have until October 9 to come up with an electoral list.”

Omtzigt’s new party threatens to roil the Dutch political landscape ahead of November’s vote.

According to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, the joint Labour Party (PvdA) and GreenLeft list — set to be led by EU climate chief Frans Timmermans — is currently polling highest. But Omtzigt’s popularity makes him and his new party a looming threat across the board, including to Timmermans, according to recent polling.

The opinion poll by research company I&O — taken before Omtzigt announced his new party — estimated that he could win as many as 46 seats, or 29 percent of the voters, were he to join the race.

Omtzigt, who played a pivotal role in uncovering the child benefits scandal that led to the collapse in 2021 of the then-Cabinet, said he does not want all 46 seats, as that would “not be responsible.”

“The ambition is not to become the largest party under the spell of the polls, but rather to implement the plans and find support for them,” he said on his website.

The Netherlands heads to general elections for the 150-seat lower house of parliament on November 22, after Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition collapsed in July, following the failure to agree on migration policy. Rutte then announced he would quit politics, after leading the country for 13 years and the conservative-liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) for 17 years.

As the race heats up, the joint Labour Party (PvdA) and GreenLeft list at 18 percent are closely followed by Rutte’s VVD on 17 percent and the upstart Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB) at 16 percent, after a huge surge in the last year in protest over the Dutch government’s climate policies.