Recently I have been elected to help writing the election program of GroenLinks, the dutch green party, for the city of Utrecht. So here some few first loose thoughts.
An election program is a declaration of principles. An election program is a list of realistic policy measures. An election program inspires, an election program shows pragmatism.
Instead of principles, an election program describes a vision. Policies themselves should not be listed, but the lines that guide policy should. An election program shows where to go, an election program signals how to get there.
Also, nobody reads an election program. By the way, all our allies will check their field of expertise in our election program. We always invest energy in making our ideas more accessible, yet comprehensive of all our city.
Are these dilemmas and contradictory sentences? or rather complementary guidelines to create political content? Should we be idealistic or civil servants, visionaries or policy makers, extensive or minimalistic? You already know the most trodden answer: not one of the above, meanwhile aiming at all of the above. Equilibrium and parsimony. Nor ideologues nor bureaucrats, but something in the middle.
Yet you also know that the demise of all the traditional parties is due to their blander and blander kind of politics. Ever since the social democrats are not different than the christian democrats we greens have been winning votes. And the far right too, by the way. So that most trodden answer of finding the golden middle, the perfect compromise, the comfortable middle way, can not be the right answer.
No compromises then. What we have done well, we will repeat. Let be proud of what we are. Let’s say, loud and clear, that with GroenLinks you get more of the Utrecht that you love.
Yet let’s not stop there. Let us recognize that we have not build all what we want to build, that we are not there yet. That our society is most definitively threatened. Lets be clear, lets leave no space for mistake. Racism and exclusion are on the rise. As a party co-responsible for running the city for decennia now, we are willing and capable to compromise and collaborate with a wide array of ideas and approaches. Yet we have no tolerance for the intolerant, for the racist.
At the surface Utrecht is a welcoming nice city, full of students and diverse people. But scratch that surface and you will discover racism, inequality of opportunities and cross generational stories of poverty and exclusion. I believe that our election program needs to recognize this and offer new ways, new opportunities for fighting this together.
Not an average then. Not a list of nice rounded compromises or long known ideals. Our election program will offer continuity and challenge, for sure. But we need to be sharper than ever with the gaps in our society, where so many of our children fall. If Utrecht is to be the inclusive city that we want, we need to close those gaps together.
And say so in our election program.