Reformed Political League
Reformed Political League Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond | |
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Orthodox Protestant[note 1] | |
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The Reformed Political League[1] (Dutch: Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond, GPV) was an orthodox Protestant political party in the Netherlands. The GPV is one of the predecessors of the Christian Union. The party was a testimonial party.
History
1948–1963
The GPV was founded in 1948 as the result of a theological conflict within the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which led to the creation of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated). In 1944 a group of orthodox Protestants left the Reformed Church, because they disagreed with Abraham Kuyper's view that God had created multiple branches of Christianity (Catholicism, Protestantism etc.), each with their own sphere.
In 1948 adherents of the Reformed Church in the Netherlands (Liberated) left the Anti-Revolutionary Party, the party linked to the Reformed Church in the Netherlands. On 1 April 1948 they founded the GPV during a congress Amersfoort. Former ARP MP Albertus Zijlstra chaired the congress, and also led the party in its early years.
The party was specifically linked to the liberated Reformed Church. Membership of the church was a pre-requisite for membership of the party. This dogmatic position isolated the party.
The party participated, without success in the 1948, 1952 and 1956 general elections. After the 1956 elections the number of seats in parliament was extended, therefore the number of votes needed to obtain a seat was decreased from one percent of vote to two-thirds of one percent of vote. In the 1959 general election it appeared that the GPV had won a seat. Its sole MP, Laning, was asked to visit the queen to advise her on the formation of a new cabinet. After the results were calculated exactly, however, it became clear that the GPV had obtained too few votes for a seat.
1963–2003
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Name
The GPV chose the name Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond (Reformed Political Alliance), because it wanted to convey that it was a reformed party, and that its organisation was decentralised: the GPV was primarily an alliance of local branches.
Ideology and issues
In its first years the GPV did not have a separate election manifesto or manifesto of principles. Instead it claimed to base its policy directly on the bible. In 1967 the first manifesto of principles was published, in which the party again stressed that the Bible was the basis of their policy. The party saw the Netherlands as a Protestant nation, which should be defended.
In practice this meant that the GPV took the following stances:
- The GPV was against European Integration, because it distrusted the Catholic nature of the project;
- The party was in favour of a strong defense;
- The GPV was staunchly monarchist because it saw the Dutch Monarchyas a God-given institution;
- Originally the party wanted the government to decrease its influence on society, allowing for private initiative and civil society to take over some of its functions; during the 1980s the party wanted to retain the welfare state and paid attention to the environment;
- The GPV defended the system of special schools, which allowed for schools to be founded on liberated reformed principles;
- The party favoured the independence of ];
- As an orthodox Christian party the party was against the Dutch policy on soft drugs, same-sex marriage, prostitution, abortion and euthanasia
Leadership and support
This table shows the GPV's results in elections to the House of Representatives, Senate and European Parliament, as well as the party's political leadership: the fractievoorzitter, is the chair of the parliamentary party and the lijsttrekker is the party's top candidate in the general election, these posts are normally taken by the party's leader. The membership of the GPV is also represented.
Year | HoR
|
S
|
EP | Lijsttrekker
|
Fractievoorzitter
|
membership |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1948 | 0 | 0 | n/a | did not participate | none | unknown |
1949 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | unknown |
1950 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 1,200 |
1951 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 2,250 |
1952 | 0 | 0 | n/a | Albertus Zijlstra | none | 3,300 |
1953 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | unknown |
1954 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 5,100 |
1955 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 5,600 |
1956 | 0 | 0 | n/a | L.P. Laning | none | 5,400 |
1957 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 5,820 |
1958 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 6,400 |
1959 | 0 | 0 | n/a | L.P. Laning | none | 6,500 |
1960 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 6,311 |
1961 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 6,223 |
1962 | 0 | 0 | n/a | no elections | none | 6,608 |
1963 | 1 | 0 | n/a | Piet Jongeling | Piet Jongeling | 7,039 |
1964 | 1 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 7,146 |
1965 | 1 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 7,200 |
1966 | 1 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 8,005 |
1967 | 1 | 0 | n/a | Piet Jongeling | Piet Jongeling | 8,355 |
1968 | 1 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 8,028 |
1969 | 1 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 7,823 |
1970 | 1 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 8,702 |
1971 | 2 | 0 | n/a | Piet Jongeling | Piet Jongeling | 8,973 |
1972 | 2 | 0 | n/a | Piet Jongeling | Piet Jongeling | 9,491 |
1973 | 2 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 9,836 |
1974 | 2 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 10,498 |
1975 | 2 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 10,728 |
1976 | 2 | 0 | n/a | no elections | Piet Jongeling | 11,371 |
1977 | 1 | 1 | n/a | Bart Verbrugh | Bart Verbrugh | 12,000 |
1978 | 1 | 1 | n/a | no elections | Bart Verbrugh | 12,463 |
1979 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Bart Verbrugh | 12,700 |
1980 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Bart Verbrugh | 12,922 |
1981 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Gert Schutte | Gert Schutte | 13,181 |
1982 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Gert Schutte | Gert Schutte | 13,114 |
1983 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 13,181 |
1984 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 12,909 |
1985 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 13,044 |
1986 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Gert Schutte | Gert Schutte | 13,365 |
1987 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 13,554 |
1988 | 1 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 12,639 |
1989 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Gert Schutte | Gert Schutte | 13,015 |
1990 | 2 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 12,917 |
1991 | 2 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 14,276 |
1992 | 2 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 14,358 |
1993 | 2 | 1 | 0 | no elections | Gert Schutte | 14,179 |
1994 | 2 | 1 | 1** | Gert Schutte | Gert Schutte | 14,269 |
1995 | 2 | 1 | 1** | no elections | Gert Schutte | 14,650 |
1996 | 2 | 1 | 1** | no elections | Gert Schutte | 14,535 |
1997 | 2 | 1 | 1** | no elections | Gert Schutte | 14,366 |
1998 | 2 | 1 | 1** | Gert Schutte | Gert Schutte | 14,121 |
1999 | 2 | 2* | 1** | no elections | Gert Schutte | 13,687 |
2000 | 2 | 2* | 1** | no elections | Gert Schutte | 12,940 |
2001 | 2 | 2* | 1** | no elections | Eimert van Middelkoop | unknown |
*: in a combined parliamentary party with the RPF; **: in a combined parliamentary party with the
Municipal and provincial government
The party had some representatives in the
The party had several
Electorate
The GPV's electorate was almost entirely made up out of members of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated). These were concentrated in Gelderland, Utrecht and South Holland, which form part of the Dutch Bible belt, and Groningen
Organisation
Organisational structure
The highest organ of the GPV was the congress, it is formed by delegates from the municipal branches. It convenes once every year. It appoints the party board and decides the order of candidates on electoral lists for the Senate, House of Representatives and European Parliament, and has the last word on the party program. The party secretariat was located in Dordrecht and later in Amersfoort.
Linked organisations
The party published Ons Politeuma ("Our citizenship"). It scientific institute was the Groen van Prinsterer Stichting ("Groen van Prinsterer Foundation") and its education institute was Mandaat - Gereformeerd Politiek Vormingswerk ("Mandate, Reformed Political Education work"). Its youth organisation was the Gereformeerde Politieke Jongeren Club ("Reformed Political Youth Club"), which published Plein ("Square") and Stand-By.
Pillarised organisations
The party had a small liberated Reformed
Relationships to other parties
Before 1981 the party was very isolated, this was caused by their own dogmatic position on non-liberated Christians. Nonetheless the knowledge and conscience of its MPs was respected throughout parliament.
After 1981 the party began to cooperate with more with other parties, especially with the orthodox Protestant
In 1993 the party allowed non-liberated to become member of the party, this started a slow cooperation process with the RPF which resulted in the fusion in the Christian Union in 2003.
International Comparison
Internationally the party was comparable to the
Literature
- Klei, E.H., 'Klein maar krachtig, dat maakt ons uniek'. Een geschiedenis van het GPV, 1948-2003 (Amsterdam 2011).
Notes
- Reformed Churches (Liberated) or other more conservative forms of Protestantism such as the certain branches of Baptism