party gained its best result to date, winning five seats in the Tweede Kamer. On 16 July 2019 Femke Merel van Kooten split from the PvdD caucus and continued as an independent member of parliament. The reason for the split was that Van Kooten criticized the narrow political focus of the party, which in her opinion focused too much on ecology and animal rights. Ouwehand leadership On 8 October 2019, founder and longtime leader Marianne Thieme retired from the leadership and the Tweede Kamer. Esther Ouwehand succeeded Thieme as parliamentary leader, and Eva van Esch replaced her as a member of parliament. She was previously a city council woman in Utrecht. Allied organisations PINK! PINK! is the youth wing of the PvdD. It was established on 12 September 2006, and has slightly over 2,000 members (2021 figure). The name is derived from the Dutch word for a cow that is older than a calf, but not yet fully mature. The current chairperson, Xenia Minnaert, was elected in 2020. Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation The Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation is the research department of the PvdD. Founded in 2007, it is named after Niek Pierson, a Dutch economist and an early political donor of the party. Animal Politics EU Initially founded as Euro Animal 7, Animal Politics EU is an informal grouping of animal rights based political parties within the European Union. Animal Politics EU has member parties in the Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and Spain. The group currently has two MEPs: Martin Buschmann for the Tierschutzpartei and Anja Hazekamp of the PvdD. Electorate The electorate of the PvdD consists in majority of women (estimated at 70%) living in urban areas. In 2017 the party achieved its best results in Amsterdam (6.02%), Bergen (5.78%), Haarlem (5.69%) and Zutphen (5.62%). The party has lowest support in rural areas, especially those with large agricultural industries, such as in the Bible belt. The PvdD has the largest proportion of vegan/vegetarian voters of any political party in the Netherlands, with 17.3% or 27.9% of PvdD voters in saying in 2 surveys in 2021 that they did not eat meat. The party with the second-highest proportion of vegan/vegetarian voters in both surveys was GroenLinks, for which the share laid at 8.4% or 16.9%. Electoral results House of Representatives Senate European Parliament Provincial Municipalities At the 2022 Dutch municipal elections the PvdD won 63