ROOS!

The political party ROOS! is a democratic leftist and green political party in Kronenburg. The party was founded in 2009 through the merger of the communist CFK ('Communistisch Front van Kronenburg'), the green party DPG ('Democratische Partij van de Groenen'), the Republican Party ('Republikeinse Partij') and the so called 'Cultuurpartij' (Culture Party), which was only represented in the municipalities. Geraldine Németh has been the party's political leader since 2012.

The name 'ROOS!' (which means 'ROSE!') refers to a leftist tradition. Originally, the idea was to call the party 'ROOD!' ('RED!' in English), but many DPG members thought that that wasn't green enough, so the name became the same as that of the often red flower, so as to refer to the red colour and nature in one shot.

Because of a splendid campaign, ROOS! secured many votes in the early municipal elections in Alexanderstad in spring 2010, which was twice repeated during the elections in the other municipalities in October 2010 and during the parliamental elections on 23 March 2011. In many municipalities, ROOS! became the largest party, so that the party became the largest party in the Zuidkamer as well.

Political leaders of ROOS!:
Hans Sloots (acting, 2009 - 2010)
Sigurd Jörgensen (2010 - 2012)
Geraldine Németh (2012 - present)

Communistisch Front van Kronenburg
The communist CFK was founded in 1917 en existed for 92 years, after which it merged with other parties into ROOS!. After WOII, the party's popularity rose significantly and in 1961 the CFK formed an unlikely coalition government with the LKP, the CFK being the junior partner. Four years later, the party exceeded the threshold of 50% of the seats and formed a coalition on its own. In the elections of 1968 however, the party suffered a huge loss. This gave room for speculation that the elections were rigged by the U.S. or supported by the U.S. In early 2011, Wikileaks published documents that this was indeed the case, although all people then involved that were still alive, firmly denied these accusations.

CFK never regained its former glory. The highest score after 1968 was that of the elections 2000, but the number of 19 seats vaporised in the early elections of 2001.

Democratische Partij van de Groenen
The DPG was a young party, founded in 1998 through the merger of the Partij voor een Vooruitstrevend Kronenburg (PVK, 'Party for a Progressive Kronenburg')  and the Groene Socialisten (GS, 'Green Socialists'). Both parties had existed since the seventies. Already after the first elections since its foundation, the DPG became a member of a governing coalition, first in 2001 with the PSV and the PvG in the brief government of Johan Achterberg, subsequently in Sonja Brahms's first government with LKP and PvG. In 2004 however, the DPG left the government as a result of the alledged censorship imposed by the government on the controversial opera by composer Johannes Dekker 'Bush in Bagdad' about the U.S. and British war in Iraq. The government had stopped the opera from being performed, which the DPG found absolutely intolerable. The opera was performed anyway, but not as prominent as the composer had hoped.