The Socialist Party ( ; SP ) is a democratic socialist political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 1971 as the Communist Party of the Netherlands/Marxist–Leninist (KPN/ML, ), the party has since moderated itself from Marxism–Leninism and Maoism towards democratic socialism
Positioned to the political left of the Labour Party, the party has been part of the parliamentary opposition since it was formed. After the 2006 Dutch general election, the SP became one of the major parties of the Netherlands winning 25 out of 150 parliamentary seats, an increase of 16 seats. The SP delegation shrank over the next elections, reaching three seats in 2025. However, PvdA's popularity surged in the final weeks, and the SP's lead collapsed. The party ultimately placed fourth on 15 seats, with a slight decrease in its vote share compared to 2010.
Decline (2012–present)
In the 2017 general election, the SP lost one seat and finished sixth.
At the 2021 general election, the party returned to the nine seats it held before 2006.
After the 2023 Dutch general election, the SP delegation shrank from nine seats to five.
Ideology
The SP has been described as socialist, democratic socialist, left-wing populist, left-wing conservative, and Eurosceptic. It advocates for the Netherlands to become a republic. The party labels itself as socialist, and in its manifesto of principles, it calls for a society where human dignity, equality and solidarity are most important. Its core issues are employment, social welfare and investing in health care, public education and public safety. The party opposes privatisation of public services and is critical of globalisation. It has taken a soft Eurosceptic stance. The SP is also opposed to capitalism, as noted in what the SP calls its three main tasks:
According to Cas Mudde, the party has an "old left" platform that combines left-wing economic stances with "left-conservative" positions on some social issues — the party proposes a temporary stop on migrant workers, and it also rejects "identity politics". It has also been described as left-conservative by Renewal, and by Ipsos. The party's program is heavily focused on Dutch blue collar workers, recalling a 'historical homeland' of Dutch workers that was destroyed by privatisation, deregulation and neoliberalism; in the same vein, the party is critical of the EU, calling its policies 'false internationalism' and accusing it of being in the service of big corporations and neoliberalism. The party's opposition to mass migration is explained by its focus on the protection of the working class; the SP argues that the Dutch working class must be protected by preventing an inflow of cheap labour into the Netherlands; party's slogan on immigration is "Class struggle instead of race struggle". In 2025, political scientist Thomas Buser classified the party as economically socialist while almost as socially conservative as the Christian Union. The Socialist Party is also regarded as a textbook example of a left-wing populist party, and is also considered populist socialist.
Social issues
Because of its social stances, the party has been described as culturally conservative. Apart from campaigning on restricting immigration, the SP opposes climate change measures that it considers unfair or disadvantageous to the working class. It also strongly opposes a "European superstate" and demands the return of the Dutch national currency, the Dutch guilder; in addition, the party supports border controls within the EU, and advocates introducing a work permit requirement for people entering the Netherlands from other EU countries. Given the party's social stances, its voter base consists of low-income and working-class Catholics of the Southern Netherlands, as well as trade union members.
Economic issues
The SP is anti-capitalist, and adheres to a socialist economic agenda. Its main economic postulate is "drastic reduction in the enormous disparities in incomes and assets". It proposed a maximum wage, demanding that the highest salaries of private-sector executive be no more than ten times the salary of the lowest-paid employee; in case of the public sector, SP proposed that managers should earn no more than cabinet ministers. It also postulated a 65 percent tax on incomes above €150,000, and limitation of tax deduction for mortgage interest payments by removing it for mortgages above €350,000, denuncing it as "villa subsidy".
The party also proposes an increase of minimum wage, social welfare benfits and old age security payment by the state, along with protecting employment rights by allowing flexible work contrasts to become eligible for a permanent contact more easily. The SP also criticizes the presence of market force in the healthcare system, arguing for a national health insurance with income-dependent insurance premiums and no personal contributions instead. The SP has also been a vocal opponent of the new Dutch pension law calling it casino pensions, the party also has calls for the retirement age to be lowered back to 65 and for AOW income to be coupled to the minimum-wage.
Other stances
The party has increased its opposition towards further armament of Europe since the 2020s, stating that Europe already has enough weapons to defend itself from any potential aggressors and only needs limited investments into its military instead of the mass-rearmament program that the European Commission has proposed. The SP has also strongly expressed its opposition to the war in Gaza and expressed support for the recognition of a Palestinian state. The party's leader Dijk has, among others in the party, called the war a genocide.
Relationships with other parties
The SP has always been in opposition on a national level, although there are now numerous examples of government participation on a local and provincial level. On many issues, the SP is the most left-wing party in parliament. Between 1994 and 2002, the Labour Party (PvdA) had a conscious strategy to isolate the party, always voting against the latter's proposals. However, the party did co-operate well with GroenLinks. After its disastrous election result in 2002, the PvdA, now back in opposition, did co-operate with the SP against some of the policies of the centre-right Balkenende government and their relationship improved significantly. New tensions arose after the 2006 general election, when the SP approached the PvdA in electoral support and the PvdA joined the government whereas the SP did not.
Election results
House of Representatives
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|-
! Election
! Lead candidate
! List
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! Government
|-
! 1977
| align="left"|Remi Poppe
| List
| 24,420
| 0.29
|
| New
|
|-
! 1981
| rowspan=3 align="left"|Hans van Hooft Sr.
| List
| 30,357
| 0.35
|
|
|
|-
! 1982
| List
| 44,690
| 0.55
|
|
|
|-
! 1986
| List
| 31,983
| 0.35
|
|
|
|-
! 1989
| rowspan="6" align="left"|Jan Marijnissen
| List
| 38,789
| 0.44
|
|
|
|-
! 1994
| List
| 118,768
| 1.32
|
| 2
|
|-
! 1998
| List
| 303,703
| 3.53
|
| 3
|
|-
! 2002
| List
| 560,447
| 5.90
|
| 4
|
|-
! 2003
| List
| 609,723
| 6.32
|
|
|
|-
! 2006
| List
| 1,630,803
| 16.58
|
| class="nowrap"| 16
|
|-
! 2010
| rowspan="3" align="left"|Emile Roemer
| List
| 924,696
| 9.82
|
| 10
|
|-
! 2012
| List
| 909,853
| 9.65
|
|
|
|-
! 2017
| List
| 955,633
| 9.09
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2021
| rowspan="2" align="left"|Lilian Marijnissen
| List
| 623,436
| 5.98
|
| 5
|
|-
! 2023
| List
| 328,225
| 3.15
|
| 4
|
|-
! 2025
| align="left"|Jimmy Dijk
| List
| 199,585
| 1.89
|
| 2
|
|}
Senate
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
! Election
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
|-
! 1991
|
|
|
| New
|-
! 1995
|
|
|
| 1
|-
! 1999
| 4,801
| 3.0
|
| 1
|-
! 2003
| 8,551
| 5.3
|
| 2
|-
! 2007
| 25,231
| 15.47
|
| 8
|-
! 2011
| 17,187
| 10.35
|
| 4
|-
! 2015
| 20,038
| 11.9
|
| 1
|-
! 2019
| 10,179
| 5,88
|
| 5
|-
! 2023
| 7,404
| 4.14
|
| 1
|}
European Parliament
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
! Election
! List
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! EP Group
|-
! 1989
| style="text-align: left;" | List
| 34,332
| 0.65
|
| New
| style="text-align: left;" rowspan="2" | –
|-
! 1994
| style="text-align: left;" | List
| 55,311
| 1.34
|
| 0
|-
! 1999
| style="text-align: left;" | List
| 178,642
| 5.04
|
| 1
| style="text-align: left;" rowspan="5" | GUE/NGL
|-
! 2004
| style="text-align: left;" | List
| 332,326
| 6.97
|
| 1
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2009
| style="text-align: left;" rowspan="2" | List
| rowspan="2" | 323,269
| rowspan="2" | 7.10
|
| 0
|-
|
| 0
|-
! 2014
| style="text-align: left;"| List
| 458,079
| 9.64
|
| 0
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2019
| style="text-align: left;" rowspan="2" | List
| rowspan="2" | 185,224
| rowspan="2" | 3.37
|
| 2
| style="text-align: left;" rowspan="3" | –
|-
|
| 0
|-
! 2024
| style="text-align: left;" | List
| 136,978
| 2.20
|
| 0
|}
Representation
Members of the House of Representatives
Members of the Senate
Members of the European Parliament
The party currently has no members of the European Parliament since the 2024 European Parliamentary election.
Local and provincial government
Former SP leader Emile Roemer was the first party member who became both mayor and commissioner (he was acting mayor of Heerlen and Alkmaar, and has been King's Commissioner of Limburg since 1 December 2021). The SP is part of the provincial executive (Gedeputeerde staten) in two out of twelve provinces (Limburg and North Brabant). The SP is also part of several municipal executives (College van burgemeester en wethouders).
Organisation
Name
The party was founded as the Communist Party of the Netherlands/Marxist–Leninist (KPN/ML) in 1971. In 1972, it adopted the Socialist Party name (), with the spelling using ' instead of '. This was due to the Dutch spelling reforms at the time. However, these spelling reforms failed and the party changed its name to in 1993.
Leadership
- Chairmen
- Hans van Hooft Sr. (22 October 1971 – 20 May 1988)
- Jan Marijnissen (20 May 1988 – 28 November 2015)
- Ron Meyer (28 November 2015 – 14 December 2019)
- Jannie Visscher (14 December 2019 – 2 March 2024)
- (since 2 March 2024)
- Secretaries
- Tiny Kox (20 January 1994 – 24 May 2003)
- Paulus Jansen (24 May 2003 – 20 June 2005)
- Hans van Heijningen (20 June 2005 – 20 January 2018)
- Lieke Smits (acting, 20 January 2018 – 14 December 2019)
- Arnout Hoekstra (14 December 2019 – 2 March 2024)
- Nils Müller (since 2 March 2024)
- Parliamentary leaders in the Senate
- Jan de Wit (13 June 1995 – 19 May 1998)
- Bob Ruers (19 May 1998 – 10 June 2003)
- Tiny Kox (10 June 2003 – 25 January 2022)
- Rik Janssen (since 25 January 2022)
- Parliamentary leaders in the House of Representatives
- Jan Marijnissen (17 May 1994 – 20 June 2008)
- Agnes Kant (20 June 2008 – 5 March 2010)
- Emile Roemer (5 March 2010 – 13 December 2017)
- Lilian Marijnissen (13 December 2017 – 9 December 2023)
- Jimmy Dijk (since 13 December 2023)
Membership
As of 2016, the SP has 41,710 members and has grown considerably since it entered parliament in 1994, making it the third largest party in terms of its number of members. Like other parties in the Netherlands, the SP has seen a decline in membership in recent years.
Organisational structure
The highest body within the SP is the party council, formed by the chairs of all local branches and the party board. It convenes at least four times a year. The party board is elected by the party congress which is formed by delegates from the municipal branches. The congress decides on the order of the candidates for national and European elections and it has a final say over the party program.
The SP is a constant active force in extra-parliamentary protest. Many of its members are active in local campaigning groups, often independent groups dominated by the SP, or in the SP neighbourhood centres, where the party provides help for the working class.
An example more of nationwide nature is the movement for a National Healthcare Fund (). This campaign demonstrates the necessity of a single payer system and wants to remove market and commercialisation aspects of the current healthcare system. The expensive advertising annually organised by healthcare insurance companies in order to attract new customers is a big example. The NHS inspired movement thinks that money should solely be spent on healthcare itself. Switching from one insurance company to another can only be done once every year as restricted by Dutch law.
Linked organisations
The youth wing of the Socialist Party is called SP Jongeren. Its old youth-wing was ROOD; the word rood is officially written in capitals but is not an acronym. The SP publishes the magazine the Tribune monthly which was also the name of a historical Communist Party of the Netherlands newspaper. The relationship between Rood and the SP became rocky in 2020 due to the youth wing taking a more radical approach to politics. In late 2020 the party cut ties with ROOD.
Splinter groups
At one point, two Trotskyist entryist groups operated within the SP. This included Offensive, now called Socialist Alternative, and the International Socialists. The latter was expelled on the grounds of double membership. The similar yet very small group Offensief was not considered a factor of power, but its members were banned from the SP in February 2009, on the grounds of being "a party within a party". Members of the party Socialist Alternative Politics still operate within the SP.