Denk | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=logo} | |
| Leader | Stephan van Baarle |
| Chairman | Tunahan Kuzu |
| Leader in theHouse of Representatives | Stephan van Baarle |
| Founders | Tunahan Kuzu Selçuk Öztürk |
| Founded | 9 February 2015 |
| Split from | Labour Party |
| Headquarters | Lodewijk Pincoffsweg 503,Rotterdam |
| Youth wing | Jongerenbeweging Oppositie[1] |
| Think tank | Wetenschappelijk Instituut Statera[2] |
| Membership(2025) |  4,240[3] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-left[10] |
| Colours | Turquoise Orange |
| Senate | 0 / 75 |
| House of Representatives | 3 / 150 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 31 |
| Provincial councils | 0 / 570 |
| Website | |
| bewegingdenk.nl | |
Denk (Dutch:[dɛŋk]ⓘ,Turkish:[dæɲc];Dutch for 'think' andTurkish for 'equal' / 'balanced'),[11] legally registered asPolitieke Beweging Denk ("Political Movement Denk"),[12] is a political party in the Netherlands, founded on a platform catering to those from animmigrant andMuslim background. It is generally positioned towards theleft-wing of the political spectrum and advocates for a tolerant,multicultural society although it also containssocially conservative attitudes among its members.[13][14]
The party was founded byTunahan Kuzu andSelçuk Öztürk, twoTurkish Dutch members of theHouse of Representatives, after leaving theLabour Party on 13 November 2014. Upon winning three seats at the 2017 election, Denk became the first migrant-founded party to gain seats in theDutch national parliament.[15]
Although the party has been colloquially described as a "Muslim political party", Denk "does not promote Muslim candidates as do most similar political parties in Europe".[16] Denk's current party leader andlijsttrekker in theHouse of Representatives,Stephan van Baarle, is anagnostic.[17] Under his leadership, however, Denk took more conservative positions onLGBT rights and medico-ethical issues.[18] The party has also courted some controversy for links between its members andTurkish nationalist circles.[11][19]
Denk was founded byTunahan Kuzu andSelçuk Öztürk after leaving theLabour Party on 13 November 2014. Their resignations were prompted by proposals by Deputy Prime Minister and party leaderLodewijk Asscher that a number of TurkishIslamist organisations be monitored for interfering with the integration ofDutch citizens of Muslim origin.[20] This came after an internal party debate sparked by a report incorrectly stating that 90% of youngTurkish Dutch supportedISIS.[21][22]
On 9 February 2015, they named their parliamentary group "Denk", and they published a political manifesto for the establishment of a movement focused on a tolerant society through measures such as the introduction of a registry of racists who could not be hired by the government. In January 2016 Denk became eligible under Dutch party registration law for a subsidy after reaching the required minimum membership of 1,000. However, the basic amount of €250,000 had to be shared with the party from which it split (the Labour Party).[23]
Over the course of 2015 and 2016, Denk saw its membership grow with notable public figures joining Denk including former professional model andMiss Netherlands Tatjana Maul, chairman of the Moroccan Dutch AssociationFarid Azarkan, and actress and television presenterSylvana Simons who announced her intention to stand on Denk's list for the next general election. Simons stated that her aim in running for parliament was to tackleinstitutional racism and to help "decolonize" Dutch politics. Denk also gained municipal representation for the first time when council members fromAlkmaar andVeenendaal switched from thePvdA andD66.[24][25][26]
In December 2016, Denk's growth saw an ideological schism between the socially conservative and the liberal and progressive orientated factions, which culminated in Simons and Denk's former campaign manager Ian van der Kooye resigning to form their own political partyBIJ1. According to Simons, she supported Denk's ideals but argued the party was more focused on media attention and accused its leaders of insufficiently supportingLGBT rights andfeminism. Simons furthermore claimed that Denk's leadership had not supported her when she received death threats.[27] In January 2017, Denk demanded legal damages from Simons and Kooye for making negative comments about the party to the press.[28] The court later rejected Denk's claims and awarded Simons damages.[29]
Denk saw a breakthrough in the results from the2017 Dutch general election which ensured that Kuzu and Öztürk retained their seats in parliament together with new arrivalFarid Azarkan.[30]
In March 2020, Kuzu announced he was stepping down as party leader and was replaced by Azarkan. According to the party's board Kuzu allegedly had an extramarital affair in 2018 while magazineHP/De Tijd reported that Kuzu had displayed inappropriate behavior towards a female party employee. Kuzu denied the allegations and said Öztürk had carried out a "politicalfratricide attempt" on him.[31][32] Media speculation for Kuzu's departure was likely a power struggle between him and party chairman Öztürk.[33] Shortly afterwards it was announced that Azarkan called on the DENK party board, including Öztürk, to resign.[34] The call was rejected by the board who said it was up to the party's members to determine its future.[35]
On the 6th of May 2020, Denk's board which effectively consisted only of Öztürk and Zahir Rana announced in a press statement that they had dismissed Azarkan as party leader.[36] In response to the decision, Kuzu and all local faction leaders said that they fully supported Azarkan while Azarkan released a video onYouTube addressed to Öztürk in which he stated he would not consider resigning and called on him to step down.[37] By 9 May, Kuzu, Azarkan, and Öztürk had reportedly resolved their differences and continued their positions in the party.[38] However, a month later Öztürk resigned as chairman with immediate effect.[39] Member of ParliamentMetin Çelik and Denk municipal councilor Gürcü Polat were nominated and elected to form the interim board until the next party elections while lawyer Ejder Köse was appointed as the new party chairman.[40]
During the2022 Dutch municipal elections Denk won representation inRotterdam andSchiedam. In September 2023,Stephan van Baarle took over as party leader. Under Van Baarle, Denk put forward a new list of candidates which included Schiedam faction leaderDoğukan Ergin and footballerIsmail el Abassi. The party retained the three seats during the2023 and2025 general elections.[41]
The party advocates for the interests of various minorities within the Netherlands, including those of theTurkish Dutch,[46]Moroccan Dutch,[49]Afro Dutch,[16] andDutch Muslims.[50] On its policy manifesto, Denk describes itself as asocial democratic party and calls for a return to thePolder model of Dutch politics. It aims to combat social exclusion among minority groups and says that it supports a tolerant,multicultural and pro-immigration society in which minorities have equal rights, describing diversity as a "driving force" of Dutch society.[51] Sources have labelled Denk variously as a pro-Islam, a Muslim political party or at times anIslamist party due to some of its statements and positions, although Denk has not identified as such and its current leader van Baarle does not claim to be strongly religious.[52][53][54] Political scientist Sofie Blombäck has compared Denk to the SwedishNuance Party as minority interest parties that target immigrants of Muslim backgrounds[55] while others have compared Denk and Dutch partyNIDA as part of a recent trend of "Muslim political parties" that have formed in Europe.[56][57][58]
The key goals of DENK are "fighting discrimination and creating an inclusive, pluralistic society". It takes stances supportive ofmulticulturalism, but combines it with conservative positions on certain moral issues. It is also economically left-wing. According to political scholars atLeiden University, Denk combines progressive pro-multicultural and immigration positions and holds a centre-left economic orientation but uses more socially conservative rhetoric on matters such as euthanasia, homosexuality, religious consciousness and certain positions on law and order, where it favours stronger punishments for murder and child molestation.[59] The movement drew up a political manifesto in February 2015, from which the political party Denk emerged in November 2016.[60][61][non-primary source needed]
The Denk programme argues for the following five points:
Denk wants to establish a monument in memory of labor, and they want knowledge of migration history as a key target in education. They propose that the term "integration" should be replaced by the word "acceptance". The movement suggests abolishing the word "immigrant" within political and state policy while party leader Stephan van Baarle has described the concept of integration as an "artificial term."[62] In its 2017-2021 manifesto platform, Denk said that people with a non-Western background are less likely to find a job or internship and often have negative experiences with law enforcement. The manifesto states that racism in the Netherlands isstructural andinstitutional in nature and supported a so-called "racism registry" to be set up, in which manifestations of racism are registered by the government.[63]
Denk proposes that in education,diversity in the classroom is commensurate with the diversity of the class (including the teacher). The movement has a policy that in every school in the Netherlands, both in primary and secondary education, study of Chinese, Arabic, and Turkish must be introduced as optional subjects. According to the movement, education in these languages will be useful for the country'seconomy andinternational relations. According to the 2015 manifesto, imams should not only be appointed to mosques, but also in health care, prisons and thearmed forces.[64][65]
Denk's view is that theUnited Nations and itsSecurity Council need fundamentalreform and that theEuropean Union should pursue an independentforeign policy. The movement wants to tackle Islamic extremism by tackling its root causes, which, according to the party, consist of hopelessness,social exclusion, and injustice. On theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, the party advocates that Europe strengthen the international position of Palestine and that the Netherlandsrecognize the State of Palestine.
The party carries the program advanced by the International Institute for Scientific Research, based inThe Hague, with the purpose ofdecolonization.[16] Among its policies, Denk seeks to: establish a "racism register" to track and condemn the use ofhate speech against religion; build a Dutch slavery museum; abolish the black characterZwarte Piet ("Black Pete"); and ban the use of the Dutch word "Allochtoon" which it considers as derogatory towards ethnic minorities in the Netherlands.[16]
Although Denk's some of social and economic policies overlap withGroenLinks,PvdA,D66 and theSP[66] it also takes a more conservative stance on certain law & order issues that are aligned to policies on the Dutch right; for example Denk's Rotterdam chapter tabled a motion withLivable Rotterdam andVVD to ban the use oflaughing gas in public.[67] On its platform, Denk argues that crime should be tackled through investigating its root causes, which the party claims to be poverty, lack of opportunity and racial discrimination.[68]
The party has been described aspro-immigration[69][11][70] and supportingmulticulturalism,[71][72] as well as being identified withidentity politics.[73]
The party mainly attracts support fromethnic minorities in the Netherlands, especially from theTurkish andMoroccan population. Correspondingly the support for Denk is the strongest in cities and towns with a significant migrant population, especially in larger cities such asAmsterdam andRotterdam. In these cities the support for the party is concentrated inmajority-minority districts, such asNieuw-West in Amsterdam orKanaleneiland inUtrecht, gaining between 30 and 40% of the votes in those districts.[74] The majority of voters with a foreign migration background voted for Denk orBIJ1 in 2023.[75] A study by theUniversity of Amsterdam noted that in 2019, Dutch voters of Turkish origin were more inclined to vote for Denk[76] but in the 2021 election this was replaced by support from those with a Moroccan background, with some commentators attributing the shift with internal problems within the party following a scandal involving former Turkish-Dutch leader Kuzu and his replacement by the Dutch-Moroccan politician Azarkan in 2020.[77]
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The two leaders and founders of the party have been criticized for being "closely linked to theAK Party" of Turkish leaderRecep Tayyip Erdoğan, and "do not criticize Erdogan and Turkish government policies". Some critics in the Dutch media have called the party the "long arm of Erdoğan" for its perceived support of the party line of the Turkish government and the rulingAK Party.[11][78][44][79] The party was the sole party in the Netherlands that did not call for the release of a Turkish-Dutch blogger who was arrested for a tweet about Erdoğan.[44] The party has also been heavily criticized for refusing to distance itself from thepurges in Turkey since 2016.[11] However, as Denk's leader, Kuzu distanced himself from comments of Erdoğan in which the Turkish president called Dutch authorities "Nazi remnants and fascists",[80][81] labelling those comments "incorrect" and "very troublesome".[82]
TheDiyanet, a Turkish governmental unit, has allowed Denk to promote itself in Diyanet-controlled Dutch mosques. There are 146 such mosques as of 2018.[79]
The party's program for the2017 general election, in the context of theArmenian genocide, mourns both the Turkish and the Armenian sides, while calling for an "independent international investigation". Denk claims that there is no consensus regarding the scale and cause of the tragedy, and calls for "reason and unification". Within that framework, the party does not use the termgenocide.[61] In February 2018, Denk was the sole party which voted against a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide in the House of Representatives.[45][83]
In March 2018, Özturk drew media attention for speaking at an election rally of the Turkish Federation of the Netherlands which is often described as aneo-fascist andfar-right movement with links to theNationalist Movement Party.[84]
Political journalists in the Netherlands have documented that Denk's parliamentary faction has a record of abstaining or voting against motions which are perceived to hold negative sentiments about Turkey.[85]
In March 2020, Denk was condemned by fellow members of theHouse of Representatives for releasing videos of MPs of Turkish descent from other parties, in which they are portrayed, for example, as "traitors" to theTurkish-Dutch community causing mass harassment of those MPs.[86]
Although the party has stated that it opposesantisemitism and all forms of racism and religious discrimination, party members have been accused of making antisemitic comments and tropes or voting against initiatives to combat antisemitism. In 2018, Denk party employee and former staffer Hussein Jamakovic sent threatening and antisemitic emails to various newspapers includingDe Telegraaf andGeenStijl] after the De Telegraaf had uncovered comments in which Jamakovic had declared support forISIS.[87][88][89]
In March 2018, Denk along with BIJ1 were the only two parties represented on Amsterdam City Council to vote against a motion condemning antisemitism and calling for more security for Jewish Amsterdam residents.[90]
In 2024, Denk leaderStephan van Baarle and chairman of the far-rightFvDThierry Baudet were the only two party leaders in the House of Representatives to abstain on a motion against antisemitism. Denk responded by saying that while it supports measures against antisemitism, it claimed to have abstained due to disagreeing with the wording of the motion.[91]
In September 2016, Kuzu provoked controversy after speaking at a demonstration in Rotterdam in which he shared the stage withHamas activist Huseyin Sayilgan and supporters of theGrey Wolves organization were in attendance.[92][93] Afterwards, Kuzu was asked by VVD politicianHalbe Zijlstra to distance himself from Hamas and the Grey Wolves but declined to do so.[94]
In 2017,NRC Handelsblad reported that Denk was setting up fake social media profiles to influence public opinion. After initially denying the accusations, then party leader Kuzu admitted that members of the party's youth wing had set up troll accounts and had since been confronted about their behaviour by the party's board.[95]
In the2025 Dutch general election, three MPs from Denk were elected:
| Election | Lead candidate | List | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Tunahan Kuzu | List | 216,147 | 2.1 | 3 / 150 | New | Opposition |
| 2021 | Farid Azarkan | List | 211,053 | 2.0 | 3 / 150 |  0 | Opposition |
| 2023 | Stephan van Baarle | List | 246,765 | 2.4 | 3 / 150 | 0 | Opposition |
| 2025 | List | 250,368 | 2.4 | 3 / 150 | 0 | TBA |
| Election | Lead candidate | List | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Ayhan Tonça | List | 60,669 | 1.1 | 0 / 26 | New |
0 / 29 | |
Ethnic groups that often supported social-democrats have formed own parties, which we refer to as "ethnic-minority-interest parties". In 2017, DENK was the frst of such parties to win seats in a Western European national parliament.
DENK's key policies are fighting discrimination and creating an inclusive, pluralistic society. It combines multicultural positions on questions of national identity with more conservative positions on moral issues. The party, for instance, opposes liberalizing euthanasia legislation. Its moral conservatism is most visible in positions on law and order, where it favours stronger punishments for murder and child molestation. On economic issues, it generally has a left-wing orientation