Over the coming weeks the PvdA party membership is going to decide who should be the new leader. Should Rutte be worried?

Nrc thinks Rutte should probably be quite worried. Now that ‘decent’Job Cohen has left, the question is which way the party is going to turn. Is it going to position itself as a leftist alternative to the SP or will it shift towards the middle and be a threat to D66, GroenLinks and CDA?, the paper asks.
The timing, just before important decisions on major budget cuts will have to be made, could not be worse.
Not marginal
The PvdA, inspite of the polls, is not a marginal party yet, Nrc writes. Its 30 seats were crucial for the cabinet’s decisions on pensions and the euro. Not that Cohen ever got, or indeed asked, anything in return for his support, the paper remarks elsewhere. The only thing it got him was Wilders’ epithet of ‘company poodle’ and ‘the great facilitator’.
Nrc thinks Diederik Samson, who seems to hold the best cards for the leadership, could be the person to change the party’s course. Cohen supported the cutbacks because Europe dictated them. ‘But Samsom could argue that adherence to the strict European rules is bad for the economy. There is also a chance that he will take up a different position on other European decisions, such as the Greek bail out plan. A no vote from the PvdA in the absence of PVV support would spell trouble for Rutte’, the paper writes.
Reluctant
Ronald Plasterk, another contender for the leadership, has also shown himself to be reluctant when it comes to international support if that would mean a cut in the education budget for instance.
Nrc thinks the ‘new’ PvdA will do its utmost ‘to shoot holes in the new budget and will try to turn the tables on Wilders by putting him in the position of the ‘great facilitator’.
On the other hand, if the cabinet should fall, the PvdA would face a campaign with an inexperienced leader at the helm in heavy financial weather, the paper concludes.
PvdA agrees with cabinet
The Volkskrant does not think Rutte has anything to worry about at all. It thinks that things will trundle along no matter who becomes leader of the opposition. ‘The fact is that the PvdA agrees with the cabinet on most things’, it writes. The paper sets out to proof it, 2010 party programme in hand. On six of the main points, the PvdA programme coincides with the cabinet plans. The only difference is in the details, the paper writes.
But, as the paper doesn’t write, the devil is in the details and much will depend on the party’s willingness to change tack.