International

The proposed laws outlawing the SP’s ‘contribution rule’, under which anyone holding a public office in the name of the party pays his or her salary to the SP and receives in return a salary equivalent to that of a Dutch skilled worker, have been withdrawn. SP Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak, welcoming the move, said that it puts an end to the dubious practice under which laws were being used for party political ends. ‘Decision-makers who line their own pockets are not dealt with, while politicians who want to share their own money are made suspect,’ he said.

The SP’s ‘afdrachtregeling’ – contribution rule – is a voluntary agreement under which politicians transfer a substantial slice of their remuneration to the party, enabling it to remain independent and ensuring that no-one seeks elected office simply for the money. The rule is part of a tradition stretching back to 1888, when Domela Nieuwenhuis became the first socialist MP in the Netherlands’ history.

Since 2006, successive governments have sought to put an end to the rule. When a proposal was finally brought forward in 2011, it attracted criticism from the Council of State, a high-level body which advises whoever is in power as to the advisability of proposed laws.

Meanwhile, the SP’s own Party Council, its supreme decision-making body between national congresses, has endorsed the findings of an internal commission of enquiry into the workings of the rule. The commission discovered that the contribution rule enjoyed massive support within the party, and made a number of proposals for further improvements. ‘The contribution is a form of solidarity in practice,’ says Van Raak. ‘That’s something we do not only in words, but in deeds.’