The Party for the Animals is aware of its position and potential role. It certainly does not regard itself as just a one-issue party.

While in the past even the one-issue parties, such the Farmers’ Party and the Party for the Elderly, succeeded in getting their issues on the agenda of the serving government, our mission and understanding of our task goes much further.

We can see a great analogy with the race that the Kenyan marathon runner Noah Bor ran in the Athen’s marathon. He started as the pacemaker who was supposed to help the other more experienced runners to keep pace, but instead finished first. In the first instance, the Party for the Animals also wants to be such a pacemaker, reminding the other established political parties of their responsibility to pursue animal-friendly policies. Our fiery breath will provide a tailwind for the animal-friendly specialists of other parties who currently do not get enough support from their party colleagues and believe that standing up for animals should be a priority.

We have received declarations of support from numerous political parties, even from serving MPs, for our endeavour for animals to be given serious attention in the political agenda.

This is why we also have every confidence that winning even just a couple of seats in parliament will have a decisive influence of the policy changes we advocate, which will finally give animals the rights that they deserve.

Time after time, other parties seem to have easily ‘forgotten’ animals in their manifestos and policy because there are already so many human-related issues on the agenda, which means that animals never get their turn.

This will change with the national breakthrough of the Party for the Animals, which will also be of major international importance.

In addition, it will demonstrate that we as a party transcend the traditional divisions between left and right as a result of our different way of thinking. We constitute a civilising offensive that will not only lead to better living conditions for animals, but also to a more pleasant and sustainable society.

Our impetus is a moral revival in which the true values relating to the lives and survival of people, animals and the environment take centre stage and become part of the everyday lives of increasingly more citizens.

Our electoral programme is entitled 220x better for people, nature and the environment. Not as a hobby, but out of a necessity to achieve a society in which the true value of life is cherished and short-term self-interest is forsaken.

We will do everything within our power to ensure that as many of our 220 proposals for improvement as possible are implemented by the current government.

In the current political landscape in which the traditional left and right-wing camps threaten to become deadlocked, the Party for the Animals can fill the whip position to rapidly help animals, nature and the environment recover from the assaults committed by the 3 successive Balkenende cabinets. We are ready, willing and able to form coalitions with everyone – from whatever political background - who wants to help to achieve a better, more sustainable world!