Party for the Animals

The Party for the Animals (, ; PvdD) is a political party in the Netherlands. Among its main goals are animal rights and animal welfare. Since 2019, the PvdD's political leader is Esther Ouwehand. With 3.8% of the votes at the 2021 general election, the PvdD holds six of the 150 House of Representatives's seats. In the Senate it has three of the 75 seats, it holds 26 States-Provincial seats across all provinces and in the European Parliament it has one of the 29 seats allocated to the Netherlands constituency. History Founding The Party for the Animals was founded on 28 October 2002 by Marianne Thieme, among others. Although initially considered a testimonial party, a party which does not seek to gain political power but to testify its beliefs and thereby influence other parties, the party signaled its willingness to enter a coalition-government in 2021. The party today is a part of the governing coalitions in the municipalities of Almere, Arnhem and Groningen.