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 3.8% of the votes at the 2021 general election, the PvdD holds six of the 150 House of Representatives's seats. In the Senate it has three of the 75 seats, it holds 26 States-Provincial seats across all provinces and in the European Parliament it has one of the 29 seats allocated to the Netherlands constituency. 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. 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.