Conflict at Party for the Animals: two camps claim to represent the party in the Senate

A conflict arose on Friday within the three-member Senate faction of the Party for the Animals over who should lead. The faction has split into two camps, both claiming to want to continue as the Party for the Animals (PvdD).

In an email to members, the party board wrote that party leader Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers will continue on her own. The two other senators, Niko Koffeman and Peter Nicolaï, stated that they will continue on behalf of the Party for the Animals and that Visseren-Hamakers has "split off" and will continue in an individual capacity.

The three members of the Senate met Friday afternoon for the first time since Senator and founder of the party Niko Koffeman announced in an interview with NRC that he had resigned his party membership due to an excessive focus on "human issues" such as Gaza.

After Koffeman's departure from the Party for the Animals (PvdD), Visseren-Hamakers reportedly told him he could no longer be part of the Senate. The party board wrote this in an email to members. "Unfortunately, Peter Nicolaï has indicated that he does want to remain in the same parliamentary group with him [Koffeman, ed.]," said Visseren-Hamakers, who is quoted in the email. "Following this step, the Party for the Animals' Senate faction is splitting, effective today."

Expelled

"My commitment has always been to keep everything together," Peter Nicolaï explained in a phone call with NRC . "If Niko were to implement the election platform, which he wanted to do, I wouldn't see why he couldn't be in the parliamentary group. We've been working very well together for six years." Legally, it's possible to no longer be a member of a party but still be in its parliamentary group, says Nicolaï, a former lawyer and professor of administrative law.

During Friday's parliamentary group meeting, Nicolaï decided to appoint herself as the new parliamentary group leader to keep the three-member PvdD faction together. According to Nicolaï, Koffeman agreed, so "a majority agreed." Visseren-Hamakers, PvdD faction leader since February of this year, reportedly then announced her intention to split the faction.

After the meeting, Nicolaï received a message from the party board that he had been expelled from the party, he said. A spokesperson for the Party for the Animals could not confirm this to NRC because it was "privacy-sensitive information." Nicolaï said he would appeal the expulsion. A spokesperson for the Senate told the ANP news agency that the Senate had not yet been informed of any split and that all three politicians were officially still part of the parliamentary group.

Party leader Esther Ouwehand wrote in her email to members that she was "proud" of "how Ingrid has handled this complicated situation."