Learning from Holland: how D66 recovered from under 2% It is fitting that an internationalist party such as the Liberal Democrats should be willing to look at lessons from its sister parties around the world. I’ve previously covered lessons from Holland and Canada. This time it’s back to Holland with an exclusive piece from D66’s Annelou van Egmond. As ever, the inclusion of such a piece doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with all its recommendations, but it certainly gives all Lib Dems good food for thought. I strongly believe we liberals, Liberal Democrats or social liberals have to inspire each other to expand the liberal footprint in our respective communities, cities, counties and countries and, collectively, in our continent as well. Sharing knowledge and experiences are step one in this inspiration process surely. The bad news is there is no one method to recuperate after defeat. What worked and works for us can for sure not be replicated one on one in another context. D66 and the Lib Dems, the UK and The Netherlands – we have different political formal and informal rules and restrictions. So that would make for a short article! The good news, however, is that it is possible to extract some ‘golden rules’ that can be applied in any context to create your own route to success. These are things we have learned the hard way: Be brutally honest. As long as you still blame ‘the others’ (other parties, the media, other sections of your own party) you will never be able to fix yourself. If you want to be able to say a success is your doing you have to be able to admit this goes for failure too.

Stick with the plan. Any plan. It took us almost 10 years and we’re still working at it. Even though we saw the first signs of success after five years or so we knew we still had a long way to go and we did not stray. The plan has to cover all realms of political representation and has to be consistent.

Celebrate but don’t become complacent. For everyone to stay enthusiastic and feel part of the progress a long-term goal is essential but not enough. The mid-term celebrations are what makes up the conviction that we’re on the right track, both within the party and with the outside world. And use them not only to mark the progress but also the path ahead.

Don’t presume people will know what to do. Teaching and training are essential. Just because we all cherish more or less the same political principles, that is no guarantee that we all communicate the same message and image. In order to make it look easy, you have to work hard and get everyone on board. These are all suggestions that have to do with how you set up your infrastructure and how you work together. You might have expected me to come up with suggestions regarding your manifesto or ways to attract new voters. But manifestos are not what matters most in the context of working on recovery. First of all, because our liberal democratic values are solid in good and bad times, as proper values should be, and voters are allergic to political movements wrapped up in their own discussions instead of dealing with the day to day challenges at hand. They know we have principles. Now let’s get on with it. Second of all, because manifestos are only relevant to your political opponents and the media, not so much to the average voters. They will not read it – and trust somebody else will and get it to them in short hand. And that is exactly what will happen: if you don’t do it yourself somebody else will and run with it. Therefore my final piece of advice to create a successful political proposition and thus movement is: Define who you are. Being Lib Dems is not enough even though it’s our common denominator. It’s too aloof for most people who don’t spend all their waking hours thinking about politics. It’s too much a concept or a doctrine and way too easy for your opponents to abuse. If you don’t say exactly who you are, they will and they will frame it to suit their strategy. This is even more true in a country like the UK that has long been a bipolar political landscape. Either you’re Conservative or Labour. Being neither is not a very solid proposition to the voters. D66 is the Education Party. Once we decided this everything fell into place. And sure enough, we had our share of debates. Members saying “we’re not a one trick pony!’ and ‘we’re so much more; we care about jobs, healthcare, sustainability, innovations, (international) solidarity and democracy.’ We do. And education gives us the opportunity to discuss that with our voters. Education is the key to the realisation of many of our ideals. We want people to have equal opportunities to become independent. We want individuals who find their interest or talent and use it to better themselves and their circle of dependents, who contribute to society as a whole and who understand the effect their actions have on their own lives and that of others, now and in the future and here or elsewhere. Education is the tool, not the goal. So there it is. We are the Education Party and we’re proud of it. And more importantly we have decided this ourselves and we have not allowed others to state otherwise. We’ve grown from under 2% in 2006 to now almost 15% of the votes at various elections in the meantime, thus giving us the opportunity to realise our ideals, not just concerning education but also bit by bit as part of coalitions locally, regionally and who knows before long nationally.