Christian Democratic Appeal

By 1918, there were three major Christian Democratic parties in the Netherlands—the

From 1918 to 1967, the three Christian Democratic parties had a majority in both houses of the States General, and at least two of them were included in every cabinet. The KVP and its antecedents had been in government without interruption since 1918.

In the 1960s, Dutch society became more secularised and the pillars faded, and voters began to move away from the three Christian-democratic parties. In the 1963 general election the three parties held 51% of the vote, whilst in 1972 general election they held only 32%. This decline forced the three parties to work closer together. In 1967 the Group of Eighteen was formed: it was a think-tank of six prominent politicians per party that planned the future cooperation of the three parties. In 1968 the three political leaders of the parties (Norbert Schmelzer (KVP), Barend Biesheuvel (ARP) and Jur Mellema [nl] (CHU) made a public appearance, stating that the three parties would continue to work together.

This caused progressive forces within the three parties, especially the ARP and KVP, to regret their political affiliation. In 1968 they founded the Political Party of Radicals (PPR), a left-wing party that sought cooperation with the Labour Party (PvdA). Locally and provincially however the three parties had long cooperated well, in some areas they formed one Christian-democratic parliamentary party and proposed one list of candidates. In the 1971 general election, the three parties presented a common political program, which lay the foundation for the first Biesheuvel cabinet.

After the disastrous elections of 1972, the cooperation was given new momentum. Piet Steenkamp, a member of the Senate for the KVP was appointed chairman of a council which was to lay the foundation for a federation of the three parties, and provide a common manifesto of principles. In 1973 this federation was officially formed, with Steenkamp as chairperson.

The cooperation was frustrated by the formation of the

The election result forced Van Agt to start talks with Den Uyl. Although Van Agt had been Deputy Prime Minister in the cabinet Den Uyl, the two had never gotten along well. The animosity between them frustrated the talks. After more than 300 days of negotiations, they finally officially failed, and Van Agt was able to negotiate a cabinet with the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). The first Van Agt cabinet had a very narrow majority. The unexpected cabinet with the VVD led to split within the newly founded CDA between more progressive and more conservative members. The progressives remained within the party, and were known as loyalists. On 11 October 1980, the three original parties ceased to exist and the CDA was founded as a unitary party. After the 1981 general election, the VVD and the CDA lost their majority, and the CDA was forced to cooperate with the PvdA. Den Uyl became deputy prime minister under van Agt. The second Van Agt cabinet was troubled by ideological and personal conflicts, and fell after one year.

After the

The 1994 general election was fraught with problems for the CDA: personal conflicts between retiring prime minister Lubbers and lead candidate Elco Brinkman, a lack of support for the reforms of old age and disability pensions, and the perceived arrogance of the CDA caused a dramatic defeat at the polls. A new coalition was formed between PvdA and the liberal parties VVD and Democrats 66 (D66), consigning the CDA to opposition for the first time ever. It was also the first government without any Christian Democratic ministers since 1918. The party was marred by subsequent internal battles over leadership. The party also reflected on its principals: the party began to orient itself more toward communitarian ideals.

Balkenende cabinets, 2002–2010

During the tumultuous

After the

In the 2010 general election the CDA lost half of its seats and came in fourth place after VVD, PvdA and the Party for Freedom (PVV). Balkenende announced his resignation and stayed prime minister until the formation and inauguration of the Rutte cabinet.

After the fall of the short-lived first Rutte cabinet in 2012, in which the CDA participated as junior coalition partners to the VVD, the party announced a leadership election. On 18 May 2012 the party announced that the leadership elections were won by Sybrand van Haersma Buma. He received more than 50 percent of the votes. The popular Mona Keijzer, the rising star within the party, received 26% of the votes and announced that she would closely collaborate with Van Haersma Buma during the election campaign prior to the Dutch general election on 12 September 2012. In that election, the CDA suffered considerable losses, falling to 13 seats. The party was excluded from the second Rutte cabinet—only the second time in its history that the party has not been in government. At the municipal elections of 19 March 2014 the CDA won 18% of all the votes and remained the largest party in Dutch municipalities.^[11]

In the 2017 general election, the CDA gained six seats to become the third largest party.^[12] It continued to remain in government as part of the third Rutte cabinet, with the VVD, D66 and CU.

On 19 March 2021, chairman Rutger Ploum resigned after the party looked to have lost 4 out 19 seats in the 2021 general election.^[13] In August 2023 Henri Bontenbal succeeded Wopke Hoekstra as leader of the party. He led the party throught the 2023 Dutch general election, where the CDA got 5 seats and 3.3% of the popular vote, making it the worst result in the party's history.^[14]

Ideology

The CDA is a

In the past, Maxime Verhagen, then informal leader of the CDA and deputy Prime Minister, strongly denied the claim that the CDA is a right-wing party. Verhagen made it clear to the media that his party is a centrist and moderate party, and that the CDA participates in a centre-right coalition (with the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) as the right-wing component and the CDA as the centrist component).^[24] Instead, his former colleague in the cabinet, minister of Defence Hans Hillen, was a strong proponent of a conservative CDA.

• The state deficit should be repaid in one generation to cope with the effects of the aging population.
• The toleration of soft drugs should come to an end and the practices of prostitution, abortion and euthanasia should be more limited.
• The party is a staunch proponent of European integration and Turkey's possible EU membership in the future.
• The party wants to make schools and hospitals more responsible for their own policy instead of being regulated by the government.

New party course

At a congress on 21 January 2012 the party adopted a centrist course, dubbed by former minister of Social Affairs

• limiting the home mortgage interest deduction;
• introduction of flat tax;
• ecotax
  );
• a pro-European policy;
• a more friendly immigration policy;
• equal chances for every person;
• more investment in higher education;
• and a modern social policy.

In 2014, the party leader Van Haersma Buma announced that CDA was now officially in favour of directly elected mayors,^[26] although a large majority of its members are opposed to elected mayors.^[27]

Electoral results

House of Representatives

Election	Lead candidate	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Government
1977	Dries van Agt	2,653,416	31.9 (#2)	49 / 150	1	Coalition
1981		2,677,259	30.8 (#1)	48 / 150	1	Coalition
1982		2,420,441	29.4 (#2)	45 / 150	3	Coalition
1986	Ruud Lubbers	3,172,918	34.6 (#1)	54 / 150	9	Coalition
1989		3,140,502	35.3 (#1)	54 / 150		Coalition
1994	Elco Brinkman	1,996,418	22.2 (#2)	34 / 150	20	Opposition
1998	Jaap de Hoop Scheffer	1,581,053	18.4 (#3)	29 / 150	5	Opposition
2002	Jan Peter Balkenende	2,653,723	27.9 (#1)	43 / 150	14	Coalition
2003		2,763,480	28.6 (#1)	44 / 150	1	Coalition
2006		2,608,573	26.5 (#1)	41 / 150	3	Coalition
2010		1,281,886	13.6 (#4)	21 / 150	20	Coalition
2012	Sybrand Buma	801,620	8.5 (#5)	13 / 150	8	Opposition
2017		1,301,796	12.4 (#3)	19 / 150	6	Coalition
2021	Wopke Hoekstra	989,385	9.5 (#4)	15 / 150	4	Coalition
2023	Henri Bontenbal	345,822	3.3 (#7)	5 / 150	10	TBA

Senate

Election	Votes	Weight	%	Seats	+/–
1977*				24 / 75	5
1980				27 / 75	3
1981				28 / 75	1
1983				26 / 75	2
1986				26 / 75
1987				26 / 75
1991				27 / 75	1
1995				19 / 75	8
1999				20 / 75	1
2003		46,848	29.0 (#1)	23 / 75	3
2007		43,501	26.7 (#1)	21 / 75	2
2011	86	24,260	14.6 (#3)	11 / 75	10
2015	89	25,145	14.9 (#2)	12 / 75	1
2019	76	19,756	11.4 (#3)	9 / 75	3
2023	47	13,136	7.34 (#5)	6 / 75	3

• 11 seats as a stand-alone party.

European Parliament

Election	List	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Notes
1979	List	2,017,743	35.60 (#1)	10 / 25	New	[28]
1984	List	1,590,218	30.02 (#2)	8 / 25	2	[29]
1989	List	1,813,035	34.60 (#1)	10 / 25	2	[30]
1994	List	1,271,840	30.77 (#1)	10 / 31		[31]
1999	List	951,898	26.94 (#1)	9 / 31	1	[32]
2004	List	1,164,431	24.43 (#1)	7 / 27	2	[33]
2009	List	913,233	20.05 (#1)	5 / 25	2
				5 / 26		[34]
2014	List	721,766	15.18 (#2)	5 / 26		[35]
2019	List	669,555	12.18 (#3)	4 / 26	1
				5 / 29	1	[36]

Representation

Members of the Fourth Rutte cabinet

Ministers		Title/Ministry/Portfolio(s)			Assumed office
	Karien van Gennip (born 1968)	Second Deputy Prime Minister	Social Affairs and Employment		5 September 2023
		Minister			10 January 2022
	Hanke Bruins Slot (born 1977)	Minister	Foreign Affairs		5 September 2023
	Hugo de Jonge (born 1977)	Minister	Interior and Kingdom Relations		5 September 2023
State Secretaries		Title/Ministry/Portfolio(s)			Assumed office
	Marnix van Rij (born 1960)	State Secretary	Finance	• Fiscal Policy • Tax • Governmental Budget	10 January 2022
	Vivianne Heijnen (born 1982)	State Secretary	Infrastructure and Water Management	• Water Management • Weather Forecasting	10 January 2022

Members of the House of Representatives

Members of the Senate

Members of the European Parliament

The CDA has been a member of the

Current members

Current members of the European Parliament since the 2019 election:

4 seats:

1. Esther de Lange (lead candidate)
2. Annie Schreijer-Pierik
3. Jeroen Lenaers
4. Tom Berendsen

Local and provincial government

By far, the CDA has the most members of municipal and provincial councils in the Netherlands. Furthermore, it cooperates in most municipal and provincial governments.

Electorate

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The CDA is mainly supported by religious voters, both Catholics and Protestants. These tend to live in rural areas and tend to be

Geographically, the CDA is particularly strong in the provinces of

The youth movement of the CDA is the Christian Democratic Youth Appeal (CDJA). The CDA publishes a monthly magazine, and its scientific bureau publishes the Christian Democratic Explorations (Christen-Democratische Verkenningen).

As an effect of

The CDA participates in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, a democracy assistance organisation of seven Dutch political parties.

International organisations

The CDA is a member of the European People's Party^[43] and the Centrist Democrat International.^[44]

Further reading

• Bosmans, Jac (2004). Michael Gehler; Wolfram Kaiser (eds.). The Primacy of Domestic Politics: Christian Democracy in the Netherlands. Routledge. pp. 47–58.
  ISBN 0-7146-5662-3. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
  )
• Lucardie, Paul (2004). Steven Van Hecke; Emmanuel Gerard (eds.). Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained? Christian Democracy in the Netherlands. Leuven University Press. pp. 159–177.
  ISBN 90-5867-377-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help
  )