oa ‘Zij die niet geloven, praten niet’

Disbelievers must stay silent

Historians have long failed adequately to consider the wide range of recurring criticism accompanying European integration, and have only belatedly recognized its diversity and relevance. It is not widely known, for instance, that there was significant opposition to the first European elections, held in 1979, in various member states. In the Netherlands all left-wing political parties had factions which questioned the direction of the European Community and the principle of direct election to the European Parliament. This type of dissent was also present within the PvdA (Labour Party). This article analyzes the struggles surrounding the election program and the composition of the candidate list, and explains why critics of the European Community were eventually defeated. Comparison with debates in the United Kingdom and Denmark may explain why critical PvdA members in the Netherlands were less successful than their counterparts in other countries.