Denk (political party)
Based on Wikipedia: Denk (political party)
In November 2014, two politicians walked out of the Dutch Labour Party and into political history. Within three years, they would accomplish something unprecedented: founding the first immigrant-led party ever to win seats in the Dutch national parliament.
But the story of Denk—a word that cleverly means "think" in Dutch and "equal" in Turkish—is far more complicated than a simple immigrant success story. It's a tale of identity politics, internal power struggles, Turkish nationalism, and the awkward question of what happens when a party built on tolerance takes socially conservative positions.
The Split That Started Everything
Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Öztürk were both Turkish-Dutch members of parliament serving in the Labour Party, known by its Dutch acronym PvdA. They seemed like success stories of integration—immigrants who had risen to national political prominence within a mainstream center-left party.
Then came the breaking point.
In 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher, who was also the Labour Party leader, proposed monitoring certain Turkish Islamist organizations. The concern was that these groups might be interfering with the integration of Dutch Muslims into broader society. The proposal came amid a particularly heated moment: an internal party debate had been sparked by a report—later proven incorrect—claiming that ninety percent of young Turkish-Dutch people supported ISIS, the terrorist group that had declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
For Kuzu and Öztürk, this was too much. They resigned from Labour on November 13, 2014, and struck out on their own.
Building Something New
By February 2015, the two politicians had formally named their parliamentary group "Denk" and published a manifesto calling for a more tolerant society. One of their more provocative early proposals was a "registry of racists"—a database of people with documented racist behavior who would be barred from government employment.
The idea was controversial, to say the least. Critics saw it as Orwellian. Supporters saw it as accountability.
Under Dutch law, a political party needs at least one thousand members to qualify for government subsidies. Denk reached this threshold in January 2016, though there was a catch: the basic subsidy of 250,000 euros had to be split with the Labour Party they had left behind. This is a standard provision in Dutch election law, designed to prevent politicians from gaming the system by constantly founding new parties.
What happened next surprised many observers. Notable public figures began joining the movement. Tatjana Maul, a former Miss Netherlands and professional model, signed up. Farid Azarkan, chairman of the Moroccan Dutch Association, came aboard. And perhaps most strikingly, Sylvana Simons—an actress and television presenter who was one of the most recognizable Black women in Dutch media—joined as a communications advisor.
Simons announced she would run for parliament on Denk's list, declaring her intention to tackle "institutional racism" and help "decolonize" Dutch politics. For a moment, it seemed Denk was building a broad coalition of minorities united against discrimination.
That moment didn't last.
The First Fracture
By December 2016, Denk's internal coalition had shattered. The fault line ran between socially conservative members and those with more progressive, liberal views on issues like feminism and LGBT rights.
Simons walked out, taking the party's former campaign manager Ian van der Kooye with her. They founded their own party, initially called Artikel 1—a reference to the first article of the Dutch constitution, which guarantees equality—later renamed BIJ1.
Simons didn't leave quietly. She accused Denk's leadership of being more interested in media attention than in actually advancing their stated ideals. She said they had inadequately supported LGBT rights and feminism. And she claimed that when she received death threats, the party's leaders had failed to stand by her.
Denk responded by suing Simons for defamation. The court not only rejected Denk's claims but awarded damages to Simons. It was an embarrassing public defeat that exposed tensions the party had tried to keep internal.
The Breakthrough
Despite the drama, Denk achieved its breakthrough in the March 2017 general election. The party won three seats in the House of Representatives—the Tweede Kamer—ensuring that Kuzu and Öztürk could remain in parliament while adding Farid Azarkan to their ranks.
This made Denk the first party founded by immigrants to ever gain seats in the Dutch national parliament. In a country with a long history of immigration—from the guest workers recruited from Turkey and Morocco in the 1960s to more recent waves of refugees—this was a genuinely historic moment.
The party's support was concentrated in specific areas: neighborhoods and districts with large immigrant populations. In majority-minority areas like Nieuw-West in Amsterdam or Kanaleneiland in Utrecht, Denk won between thirty and forty percent of the vote. This hyper-local strength in certain communities allowed the party to clear the threshold for parliamentary representation even without broad national appeal.
Power Struggles and "Political Fratricide"
Success, it turns out, did not bring peace.
In March 2020, Tunahan Kuzu announced he was stepping down as party leader. The stated reason was vague, but the magazine HP/De Tijd reported allegations of inappropriate behavior toward a female party employee, along with claims of an extramarital affair in 2018.
Kuzu denied everything and accused his co-founder Öztürk of carrying out a "political fratricide attempt" against him. In other words, he believed his partner of six years was trying to politically assassinate him.
Farid Azarkan became the new party leader. But almost immediately, Azarkan called on the entire party board—including Öztürk—to resign. The board refused, saying it was up to party members to decide their fate.
Then things got truly chaotic.
On May 6, 2020, the party board—which by this point effectively consisted of just Öztürk and one other member, Zahir Rana—announced they had fired Azarkan as party leader. Azarkan responded with a YouTube video addressed directly to Öztürk, refusing to resign and calling on Öztürk to step down instead. Kuzu and all local faction leaders publicly backed Azarkan.
Three days of internal crisis ensued. By May 9, Kuzu, Azarkan, and Öztürk had reportedly resolved their differences. But a month later, Öztürk resigned as chairman anyway.
The party that had been founded to fight for dignity and equal treatment of immigrants had nearly destroyed itself through infighting.
What Denk Actually Believes
Setting aside the personal dramas, what does Denk actually stand for?
The party describes itself as social democratic and advocates for what the Dutch call the "Polder model"—a consensus-based approach to politics where labor unions, employers, and government work together to find compromise solutions. The term comes from the polders, the low-lying land reclaimed from the sea through collective effort and cooperation.
Denk's core platform rests on five pillars: a tolerant society, a caring society, a learning society, a sustainable society, and a just society promoting international justice. These sound like boilerplate political promises, but Denk gives them specific immigrant-focused content.
The party wants to establish a monument honoring the gastarbeiders—the "guest workers" who came from Turkey, Morocco, and other countries starting in the 1960s to work in Dutch factories and mines. Many of these workers never left, raising families in the Netherlands while remaining legally temporary. Denk argues their contribution deserves recognition.
More provocatively, Denk proposes eliminating certain words from official government policy. They want to abolish the term "immigrant" in policy documents and replace the concept of "integration" with "acceptance." Their current leader, Stephan van Baarle, has called cultural integration an "artificial term."
This linguistic focus might seem superficial, but it reflects a deeper philosophical position. The traditional Dutch approach to immigration assumed that newcomers should adapt to Dutch society. Denk argues instead that Dutch society should adapt to include newcomers—that the burden of change should not fall entirely on immigrants.
The Racism Registry
Perhaps Denk's most controversial proposal is the racism registry. The idea is to create a government database documenting instances of racist behavior. People listed in this registry would be barred from certain jobs, particularly in government.
Denk's manifesto argues that racism in the Netherlands is "structural and institutional in nature"—not just a matter of individual prejudice but embedded in the systems and institutions of Dutch society. People with non-Western backgrounds, the party claims, face discrimination in hiring, in finding internships, and in encounters with law enforcement.
Critics have raised obvious concerns about due process, the potential for abuse, and whether such a registry would violate fundamental rights. Supporters argue that without consequences, racist behavior will continue unchecked.
Education and Language
Denk has detailed proposals for the Dutch education system. The party wants classroom diversity to match the diversity of the student body—meaning, for instance, that schools with many Turkish-Dutch students should have Turkish-Dutch teachers.
They also propose making Chinese, Arabic, and Turkish available as optional subjects in all Dutch primary and secondary schools. The argument is practical as well as cultural: these languages would benefit the Dutch economy and international relations.
The party wants migration history taught as a school subject, so that all Dutch students—not just those from immigrant backgrounds—understand the waves of migration that have shaped their country.
The Conservative Turn
Here is where Denk becomes genuinely complicated.
Despite positioning itself as a party fighting discrimination and promoting tolerance, Denk has moved in an increasingly socially conservative direction on certain issues. This was what drove Sylvana Simons away in 2016, and the trend has continued since.
On LGBT rights, Denk takes positions that put it at odds with other parties on the Dutch left. Current leader Stephan van Baarle has opposed expanding sex education in Dutch schools, framing this as "common sense" rather than a conservative or religious stance. Academic studies have noted that Denk takes a "less socially liberal and more morally authoritarian tone on gay rights and freedom of expression" compared to other left-leaning Dutch parties.
The party also takes conservative positions on euthanasia and what the Dutch call "medico-ethical issues"—questions about the beginning and end of life. On law and order, Denk has sometimes aligned with right-wing parties, favoring stronger punishments for murder and child molestation.
Political scientist Thomas Buser has classified Denk as economically to the left of the Labour Party while being nearly as socially conservative as the Christian Union, a small religious party with strict views on moral issues.
This positioning makes strategic sense when you understand Denk's voter base. The party primarily draws support from Dutch citizens with Turkish and Moroccan backgrounds, and polling data suggests these communities often hold more conservative views on social issues than the native Dutch population. A 2024 academic study noted that Denk "tailors its messages and candidate lists to appeal to conservative Muslim voting blocks."
The Erdoğan Question
Perhaps the most persistent criticism of Denk involves its relationship with Turkey and specifically with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Critics, including many in the Dutch media, have called Denk "the long arm of Erdoğan" in the Netherlands. The party's Turkish-Dutch founders have been described as "closely linked to the AK Party"—Erdoğan's ruling party in Turkey—and critics note that they rarely if ever criticize Turkish government policies.
This matters because it raises questions about dual loyalties. Are Denk's leaders primarily advocating for Dutch citizens who happen to have immigrant backgrounds? Or are they advancing the interests of a foreign government?
The question is particularly pointed given Turkey's own complex relationship with democracy. Under Erdoğan, Turkey has jailed journalists, cracked down on opposition parties, and consolidated power in ways that many Western democracies find troubling.
Denk has maintained contacts with Turkish nationalist organizations in addition to its links with Islamic political movements. In 2021, the Islam Democrats party, which had been active in The Hague's municipal government, merged into Denk. The Islam Democrats' leadership also called on members of NIDA—another Muslim political party in the Netherlands—to join forces with Denk.
A Complicated Legacy
Ten years after its founding, what should we make of Denk?
On one hand, the party represents something genuinely new in Dutch politics: a vehicle for immigrant communities to advocate for their own interests rather than depending on mainstream parties to represent them. The fact that a majority of Dutch voters with foreign migration backgrounds voted for either Denk or BIJ1 in 2023 suggests these parties are filling a real gap.
On the other hand, Denk has been plagued by internal conflicts, scandal, and questions about its relationship with foreign powers. Its ideological positioning—progressive on immigration and multiculturalism, conservative on social issues—creates tensions that have already caused one major split and may cause others.
The party's current leader, Stephan van Baarle, is an interesting figure. He's agnostic—openly so—yet he leads a party that has been repeatedly described as "Muslim" or even "Islamist" by critics. This suggests Denk is less about religion per se than about ethnic and immigrant identity.
Denk has retained its three parliamentary seats through the 2023 and 2025 general elections. It's not growing dramatically, but it's not collapsing either. The party has found a stable niche representing certain communities that feel underserved by mainstream Dutch politics.
The Broader Pattern
Denk is not unique. Similar parties have emerged elsewhere in Europe. Political scientist Sofie Blombäck has compared it to Sweden's Nuance Party, which also targets immigrant voters, particularly those with Muslim backgrounds. Across the continent, traditional political parties have struggled to retain the loyalty of immigrant-origin voters, creating space for new movements focused specifically on these communities.
Whether this represents a healthy diversification of democracy or a troubling fragmentation along ethnic and religious lines is a question Europeans are still grappling with. Denk's story offers no easy answers—just a complicated example of what happens when a growing and increasingly assertive immigrant population demands its own voice in politics.
The name the founders chose—meaning both "think" and "equal"—suggests they wanted to build something that transcended simple ethnic politics. Whether they succeeded is a question Dutch voters will continue to answer at the ballot box.