Dear Mrs. Ouwehand, hello Esther,

Once I filled out the voting guide and it turned out that I would be a good fit for the Party for the Animals. You may know that I ultimately did not do this, but I am still glad to have you in the House. Because I find it a nice thought that someone thinks about the interests of animals. After all, we are not the only living beings on this planet, and we should reflect on that a bit more.

After the farewell of Marianne Thieme, you took over. Not a rookie, we can say, because you coordinated the PvdD for fifteen years for the leadership position. Even though Thieme did try to push you out of the House once. I found you sympathetic last night on Nieuwsuur. Especially because you would have preferred not to have been right about the human-animal relationship and the pandemic we are in. But also because it was very easy to undermine Marianne Thieme, which you did not do. And that says something about you as a person. But back to the animals.

In this week's polls, you are at five seats, making your party one of the big ones. I think it's impressive, especially because people at the beginning might have had some thoughts about a Party for the Animals. Back then it was only about animals, now it is no longer the case. As Nieuwsuur says: PvdD developed an opinion on The Hague matters. The country and your members are upset about the fact that you are dealing with human issues. ‘Human issues’ turns out to be a varied description for actually everything that you, as a larger party in the House, are supposed to vote on. Noted.

“Keeping the earth livable for all inhabitants,” you call it yourself. I find it important, unfortunately also partly due to the situation we are currently in. That much is true.