Editing GroenLinks (section)

===Before 1989: predecessors===
GroenLinks was founded in 1989 as a merger of four parties that were to the [[left-wing politics|left]] of the [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]] (PvdA), a [[social democracy|social-democratic]] party which has traditionally been the largest [[centre-left]] party in the Netherlands. The founding parties were the (formerly-communist) [[Communist Party of the Netherlands]] (CPN), the [[Pacifist Socialist Party]] (PSP), which originated in the [[peace movement]], the [[green politics|green]]-influenced [[Political Party of Radicals]] (PPR), originally a progressive Christian party, and the [[christian left|progressive Christian]] [[Evangelical People's Party (Netherlands)|Evangelical People's Party]].<ref name="Moldenhauer2001">{{cite book|author=Gebhard Moldenhauer|title=Die Niederlande und Deutschland: einander kennen und verstehen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm_h-NPz1T8C&pg=PA113|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Waxmann Verlag|isbn=978-3-89325-747-8|pages=113–}}</ref> These four parties were frequently classified as "small left"; to indicate their marginal existence. In the [[1972 Dutch general election|1972 general election]], these parties won sixteen seats (out of 150); in the [[1977 Dutch general election|1977 general election]], they only won six. From that moment on, members and voters began to argue for close cooperation.<ref name="Koole">{{Citation
|last=Koole
|first=Ruud
|author-link=Ruud Koole
|title=Politieke Partijen in Nederland. Onstaan en ontwikkeling van partijen en partijenstelsel
|publisher=Spectrum
|year=1995
|location=Utrecht
}}</ref>

From the 1980s onwards, the four parties started to cooperate in municipal and provincial elections. As fewer seats are available in these representations, a higher percentage of votes is required to gain a seat. In the [[1984 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|1984 European election]], the PPR, CPN and PSP formed the [[Green Progressive Accord]] that entered as one into the [[1984 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|European elections]]. They gained one seat, which rotated between the PSP and PPR. Party-members of the four parties also encountered each other in [[grassroots]] extraparliamentary protest against [[Nuclear power|nuclear energy]] and [[Netherlands and weapons of mass destruction|nuclear weapons]]. More than 80% of the members of the PSP, CPN and PPR attended at least one of the two [[Hollanditis|mass protests against the placement of nuclear weapons]], which took place in 1981 and 1983.<ref name="Illusie">{{Citation
|last=Lucardie
|first=Paul
|author-link=Paul Lucardie
 |author2=Wijbrandt van Schuur |author3=Gerrit Voerman
|title=Verloren Illusie, Geslaagde Fusie? GroenLinks in Historisch and Politicologische Perspectief
|publisher=DSWO-press
|year=1999
|location=Leiden
}}</ref>

The [[Evangelical People's Party (Netherlands)|Evangelical People's Party]] was a relatively new party, founded in 1981, as a splinter group from the [[Christian Democratic Appeal]], the largest party of the Dutch [[centre-right]]. During its period in parliament, 1982–1986, it had trouble positioning itself between the small left parties (PSP, PPR and CPN), the PvdA and the CDA.<ref name="Illusie"/>

{{Green politics sidebar}}
The increasingly close cooperation between PPR, PSP, CPN and EVP, and the ideological change that accompanied it was not without internal dissent within the parties. The ideological change that CPN made from [[Stalinism|official communism]] to '[[reformism]]' led to a split in the CPN; and the subsequent founding of the [[League of Communists in the Netherlands]] in 1982. In 1983, a group of "deep" Greens split from the PPR to found [[The Greens (Netherlands)|The Greens]]. The CPN and the PPR wanted to form an [[electoral alliance]] with the PSP for the 1986 elections. This led to a crisis within the PSP, in which [[Parliamentary group leader|chair of the parliamentary party]] (''Fractievoorzitter'') [[Fred van der Spek]], who opposed cooperation, was replaced by [[Andrée van Es]], who favoured cooperation. Van der Spek left the PSP to found his own [[Party for Socialism and Disarmament]]. The 1986 PSP [[Political convention|congress]], however, rejected the electoral alliance.

In the [[1986 Dutch general election|1986 general election]], all four parties lost seats. The CPN and the EVP disappeared from parliament. The PPR was left with two and the PSP with one seat. While the parties were preparing to enter in the 1990 elections separately, the pressure to cooperate increased. In 1989, the PPR, CPN and PSP entered the [[1989 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|1989 European Parliament election]] with a single list, called the [[Rainbow (Netherlands)|Rainbow]]. [[Joost Lagendijk]] and [[Leo Platvoet]], both PSP party board members, initiated an internal referendum in which the members of the PSP declared to support leftwing cooperation (70% in favour; 64% of all members voting). Their initiative for left-wing cooperation was supported by an open letter from influential members of [[trade union]]s (such as [[Paul Rosenmöller]] and [[Karin Adelmund]]), of [[environmental movement]]s (e.g., [[Jacqueline Cramer]]) and from [[arts]] (such as [[Rudi van Dantzig]]). This letter called for the formation of a single [[progressivism|progressive]] party to the left of the [[Labour Party (Netherlands)|Labour Party]]. Lagendijk and Platvoet had been taking part in informal meetings between prominent PSP, PPR and CPN-members, who favoured cooperation. Other participants were PPR chairman [[Bram van Ojik]] and former CPN leader [[Ina Brouwer]]. These talks were called "F.C. Sittardia" or Cliché bv.<ref name="Illusie" />

In the spring of 1989, the PSP party board initiated formal talks between the CPN, the PSP and the PPR about a common list for the upcoming general elections. It soon became clear that the CPN wanted to maintain an independent communist identity and not merge into a new left-wing formation. This was reason for the PPR leaving the talks. Negotiations about cooperation were reopened after the fall of the [[second Lubbers cabinet]] and the announcement that elections would be held in the autumn of that year. This time the EVP was included in the discussion. The PPR was represented for a short while by an informal delegation led by former chair [[Wim de Boer]], because the party board did not want to be seen re-entering the negotiations it had left only a short while earlier. In the summer of 1989, the [[party congress]]es of all four parties accepted to enter the elections with a shared programme and list of candidates. Additionally, the association GroenLinks (Dutch: ''Vereniging GroenLinks''; VGL) was set up to allow sympathisers, not member of any of the four parties to join. Meanwhile, the [[1989 European Parliament election in the Netherlands|European elections of 1989]] were held, in which the same group of parties had entered as a single list under the name "[[Rainbow (Netherlands)|Rainbow]]". In practice, the merger of the parties had now happened and the party GroenLinks was officially founded on 24 November 1990.<ref name="Koole" /><ref name="Illusie" />