The leader of the Dutch Socialist Party (SP) Liliane Marienissen has resigned after losing the election last month, DPA reported on Saturday.

Lilian Marienissen, 38, wrote on social media platform X that the party needed a “new face” after a string of election defeats and years spent in opposition.

She announced that she was retiring both from the post of party chairman and from the post of deputy.

The SP, which originated from the Maoist movement of the 1970s, lost four more seats in the Nov. 22 election, leaving it with just five seats in parliament.

Conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is stepping down after 13 years in office, said the Netherlands had lost a “trusted politician” in Marijnissen’s resignation.

“Despite our differences on content, we’ve always managed to work well together and I have a lot of respect for her,” he said.

The anti-Islamic Freedom Party (PVV), led by Geert Wilders, is now the largest parliamentary group with 37 seats – more than double what it had before the election – but forming a government has so far proved difficult.