Catholic People's Party Katholieke Volkspartij | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | KVP |
Leader | Carl Romme (1946–1961) Wim de Kort (1961–1963) Norbert Schmelzer (1963–1971) Gerard Veringa (1971) Frans Andriessen (1971–1977) |
Founder | Carl Romme Josef van Schaik Laurentius Nicolaas Deckers Frans Teulings Max Steenberghe Jan de Quay Louis Beel Teun Struycken |
Founded | 22 December 1945 |
Dissolved | 27 September 1980 |
Preceded by | Roman Catholic State Party |
Merged into | Christian Democratic Appeal |
Headquarters | Mauritskade 25 The Hague |
Youth wing | KVPJO |
Think tank | Centrum voor Staatkundige Vorming |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre to centre-right |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
European affiliation | European Union of Christian Democrats [2] |
European Parliament group | Christian Democratic Group |
The Catholic People's Party (Dutch : Katholieke Volkspartij, KVP) was a Catholic Christian democratic [3] political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1945 as a continuation of the Roman Catholic State Party, which was a continuation of the General League of Roman Catholic Caucuses. During its entire existence, the party was in government. In 1977, a federation of parties including the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and the Christian Historical Union (CHU) ran together under the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) banner. The three participating parties formally dissolved to form the CDA in 1980.
The KVP was founded on 22 December 1945. It was a continuation of the pre-war Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP). Unlike the RKSP, the KVP was open to people of all denominations, but mainly Catholics supported the party. The party adopted a more progressive course and a more modern image than its predecessor.
In the elections of 1946 the party won a third of the vote, and joined the newly founded social democratic Labour Party (PvdA) to form a government coalition. This Roman/Red coalition (Roman (Rooms) for the Roman Catholic KVP, Rood, Red for the social democratic PvdA) lasted until 1958. In the first two years the KVP's Louis Beel led the Cabinet. Beel was not the party's leader a post which was taken by Carl Romme, who led the KVP between 1946 and 1961, from the House of Representatives. After the 1948 election the PvdA became larger and supplied the prime minister Willem Drees. The PvdA and the KVP were joined by combinations of the protestant-Christian Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and Christian Historical Union (CHU) and the liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) to form oversized cabinets, which often held a comfortable two-thirds majority. The cabinets were oriented at rebuilding the Dutch society and economy after the ravages of the Second World War and grant independence to the Dutch colony Indonesia. That last point was caused a split within the KVP, in 1948 a small group of Catholics broke away to form the Catholic National Party (KNP): it was opposed to the decolonisation of Indonesia and to cooperation between the Catholics and social-democrats. Under pressure of the Catholic Church the two parties united again in 1955.
The KVP was at the height of its power from 1958 to 1965. It was the dominant force in all cabinets, and every prime minister during this time was a party member. In 1958 the Fourth cabinet of Drees fell and Louis Beel formed an interim-cabinet with KVP, ARP and CHU. After the 1959 elections the KVP formed a centre-right cabinet with ARP, CHU and VVD, led by KVP member Jan de Quay. It continued to strengthen the welfare state. After the 1963 elections this cabinet was succeeded by a new cabinet of KVP-CHU-ARP-VVD, which was led by the KVP's Victor Marijnen. This coalition oversaw an economic boom. Norbert Schmelzer became the party's new leader, again operating within the House of Representatives and not the cabinet. A cabinet crisis over the Netherlands Public Broadcasting however caused the cabinet to fall in 1965. The KVP and ARP formed a cabinet with the PvdA, led by the KVP's Jo Cals. This cabinet also fell in the Night of Schmelzer, in which Norbert Schmelzer forced a cabinet crisis over the cabinet's financial policy. This was the first fall of cabinet, which was directly broadcast on television. An interim government of KVP and ARP was formed, led by the ARP's Jelle Zijlstra.
The period 1965–1980 is period of decline, crisis and dissent for the KVP. The share of votes for the KVP began to decline after 1966, because of depillarisation and secularisation: There were fewer Catholics and Catholics no longer supported a Catholic party.
In the 1967 elections the KVP lost 15% of its votes and 8 seats. During the election campaign the KVP, ARP and CHU declared that they wanted to continue cooperating with each other. Cooperation with the PvdA was much less important. This led to unrest under young and left wing KVP supporters, including Ruud Lubbers, Jo Cals, Erik Jurgens and Jacques Aarden, who called themselves Christian Radicals. After the elections this promise was upheld and the KVP formed a cabinet with its old partners, led by Piet de Jong. After much debate some of the Christian Radicals broke away from the KVP in 1968 to form the Political Party of Radicals (PPR). These include three members of parliament, who form their own parliamentary party Groep Aarden. Lubbers and Cals stayed with the KVP. The new party became a close partner of the PvdA. In the 1971 elections the KVP lost another 7 seats (18% of its vote). The KVP again joined the ARP, CHU and VVD to form a new centre-right cabinet with rightwing dissenters of the PvdA, united in DS'70. The ARP's Barend Biesheuvel led the cabinet. In 1972 the cabinet fell because of internal problems of the junior partner, DS'70.
In the subsequent elections the KVP again lost eight seats, leaving only 27, 23 less than in 1963. The cabinet again lost its majority and the KVP saw no alternative than to cooperate with the PvdA and its allies PPR and D66. An extra-parliamentary cabinet is formed by PvdA, PPR and D66 joined by prominent progressives from KVP and ARP. The KVP's ministers include the minister of Justice Dries van Agt and the minister of the Economy Ruud Lubbers. The KVP does not officially support this cabinet, which is led by social democrat Joop den Uyl. This cabinet was characterised by infighting and fell just before the 1977 elections.
In the 1970s the KVP realised that if it wanted to continue it needed to find new ways of cooperating. Ideas to form a broad Christian democratic party, like the German Christian Democratic Union were brought into practice. In 1974 the three parties formed a federation, called Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In the 1977 elections the CDA won more seats than the KVP, ARP and CHU had together. After the elections, Dries van Agt became prime minister for the CDA. In 1980 the three parties officially dissolved themselves into the CDA.
The Catholics still constitute a powerful group within the CDA. Indeed, the CDA's first two prime ministers, van Agt and Ruud Lubbers, came from the KVP side of the merger. In the early years a system of equal representation of Catholics and Protestants was practiced, from which the KVP as only Catholic group profited. Nowadays many CDA members, like Maxime Verhagen and Maria van der Hoeven have a background in the KVP's political Catholicism.
The name Catholic People's Party (Dutch: Katholieke Volkspartij; KVP), must be seen in contrast with the name of its predecessor Roman Catholic State Party. The party no longer uses the name "Roman Catholic", but simply "Catholic", de-emphasising its religious affiliation. It is no longer a state party, but a people's party, emphasising its progressive, democratic nature. The new name emphasises the KVP's progressive, democratic and non-denominational image.
The KVP was a Christian democratic party, which based itself on the Bible and Catholic dogma.
As such it was a proponent of a mixed economy: A strong welfare state should be combined with a free market, with a corporatist organisation. Trade unions and employers' organisations were to negotiate on wages in a Social Economic Council and should make legislation for some economic sectors on themselves, without government intervention, in so called Productschappen.
The state should watch over the morality of the people: divorce should be limited, recreation should be moral (for instance different swimming hours for women and men) and the family should be preserved. Families were to be helped by fiscal policies, such as the "kinderbijslag", support by the government, by the newly set up Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Welfare, and the possibility to buy their own home.
Internationally, the KVP was a staunch proponent of European integration and cooperation within NATO. The party sought the middle ground in the issue of decolonisation: Indonesia and Suriname should be independent countries within a Dutch Commonwealth.
Election | Votes | Seats | Position | Government | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | # | ± | |||
1946 | 1,466,582 | 30.8 | 32 / 100 | 1 | 1st | Coalition |
1948 | 1,531,154 | 31.0 | 32 / 100 | 0 | 1st | Coalition |
1952 | 1,529,508 | 28.7 | 30 / 100 | 2 | 2nd | Coalition |
1956 | 1,815,310 | 31.7 | 49 / 150 | 19 | 2nd | Coalition |
1959 | 1,895,914 | 31.6 | 49 / 150 | 0 | 1st | Coalition |
1963 | 1,995,352 | 31.9 | 50 / 150 | 1 | 1st | Coalition |
1967 | 1,822,904 | 26.5 | 42 / 150 | 8 | 1st | Coalition |
1971 | 1,379,672 | 21.8 | 35 / 150 | 7 | 2nd | Coalition |
1972 | 1,305,401 | 17.7 | 27 / 150 | 8 | 2nd | Coalition |
Province | Result (seats) |
---|---|
Groningen | 2 |
Friesland | 3 |
Drenthe | 2 |
Overijssel | 14 |
Gelderland | 21 |
Utrecht | 12 |
North Holland | 19 |
South Holland | 16 |
Zeeland | 9 |
North Brabant | 52 |
Limburg | 39 |
The party was particularly strong in the southern provinces of Limburg and North Brabant, where it often held 90% of the seats in the provincial and municipal legislatures and supplied all provincial and municipal governments, provincial governors and mayors. In regions like Twente, West Friesland and Zeelandic Flanders it held similar positions in municipalities, but cooperated with other parties on the provincial level.
|
|
|
|
The KVP was supported by Catholics of all classes. Its strength was in the Catholic south of the Netherlands: North Brabant and Limburg, where it often obtained more than 90% of vote. It was also strong in Catholic regions like Twente, West Friesland and Zeelandic Flanders.
During the 1960s and 1970s the KVP lost part of its electorate to progressive parties like the PPR, the PvdA and D66.
The KVP had an own youth organisation, the Catholic People's Party Youth Groups (Dutch: Katholieke Volkspartij Jongeren Groupen; KVPJG) and a scientific foundation: the Centre for Political Formation.
In the European Parliament the KVP's members sat in the Christian Democratic group.
The KVP had close links to many other Catholic institutions such as the Catholic Church and together they formed the Catholic pillar. These organisations included the Catholic Labour Union NKV, the Catholic Employers Organisation KNOV, the Catholic Farmers' Organisation KNBLTB, Catholic Hospitals united in the Yellow-White Cross and Catholic Schools. The Catholic Broadcasting Association KRO and the Catholic Paper De Volkskrant were the voices of the KVP.
Part of a series on |
Christian democracy |
---|
Christianity portal |
As a Christian party, the KVP had strong ties with the conservative Protestant ARP and Christian Historical Union. The strong ties resulted in several cabinets in the period 1946-1977 and the formation of the Christian Democratic Appeal, in which the three parties united in 1974.
The KVP had a strong centre-left group within its ranks. These supported closer cooperation with the social democratic PvdA. This resulted in several cabinets with the PvdA, but also splits within the party, most notably the formation of the Political Party of Radicals
As noted by one study, in the early postwar years “the Catholic party was dominated by its left wing, with the result that the PvdA and the KVP had relatively few disagreements on policy issues.” Beginning in 1952 however, “the focus of power within the KVP shifted to the right, resulting in frequent conflcits within the cabinet, especially in the area of economic and social policy.” [5] According to one study, the Catholic party shifted to the right between 1958 and 1963. [6] Nevertheless, new social welfare benefits were established under successive KVP-led coalition governments. [7]
As the party of a Catholic minority in a dominantly Protestant country, the KVP is comparable to the German Centre Party, which existed before the Second World War and the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland. Its political position and agenda are similar to other catholic Christian democratic parties in Europe, such as the Flemish Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams party and the Italian Christian Democracy.
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party in the Netherlands. The VVD, whose forerunner was the Freedom Party, is a party of the centre-right, which promotes private enterprise and economic liberalism.
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands.
The politics of the Netherlands take place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democracy. A constitutional monarchy, the country is organised as a decentralised unitary state. The Netherlands can be described as a consociational state. Dutch politics and governance are characterised by a common striving for broad consensus on important issues, within both of the political community and society as a whole.
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a Christian-democratic and socially conservative political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party and the Christian Historical Union; it has participated in all but three cabinets since it became a unitary party.
The Anti-Revolutionary Party was a Protestant conservative and Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1879 by Abraham Kuyper, a neo-Calvinist theologian and minister. In 1980 the party merged with the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the Christian Historical Union (CHU) to form the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
The cabinet of the Netherlands is the main executive body of the Netherlands. The latest cabinet of the Netherlands is the Fourth Rutte cabinet, which has been in power since 10 January 2022, until 7 July 2023. It is headed by Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his deputies Sigrid Kaag, Wopke Hoekstra and Carola Schouten.
The Christian Historical Union was a Protestant Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CHU is one of the predecessors of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), into which it merged in September 1980.
The Schermerhorn–Drees cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 25 June 1945 until 3 July 1946. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP), the social-democratic Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) and the social-liberal Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB) by royal decree following the end of World War II. The cabinet was a provisional centre-left grand coalition and had a substantial majority in the House of Representatives, with prominent civil engineer Willem Schermerhorn of the Free-thinking Democratic League serving as Prime Minister. Social Democratic Leader Willem Drees served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Social Affairs.
The Political Party of Radicals was a Christian-radical, progressive Christian and green political party in the Netherlands. The PPR played a relatively small role in Dutch politics and merged with other left-wing parties to form GreenLeft in 1991.
The First Lubbers cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 4 November 1982 until 14 July 1986. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) after the election of 1982. The cabinet was a right-wing coalition and had a substantial majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Ruud Lubbers serving as Prime Minister. Prominent Liberal politician Gijs van Aardenne, a former Minister of Economic Affairs, served as Deputy Prime Minister and returned Minister of Economic Affairs.
The First Van Agt cabinet, also called the Van Agt–Wiegel cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 19 December 1977 until 11 September 1981. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) after the election of 1977. The cabinet was a centre-right coalition and had a slim majority in the House of Representatives with Christian Democratic Leader Dries van Agt serving as Prime Minister. Liberal Leader Hans Wiegel served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.
The Den Uyl cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 11 May 1973 until 19 December 1977. The cabinet was formed by the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA), the christian-democratic Catholic People's Party (KVP) and Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), the progressive Political Party of Radicals (PPR) and the social-liberal Democrats 66 (D'66) after the election of 1972. The cabinet was a Centre-left grand coalition and had a substantial majority in the House of Representatives with Labour Leader Joop den Uyl serving as Prime Minister. Prominent Catholic politician Dries van Agt, the Minister of Justice from the previous cabinet, served as Deputy Prime Minister until his resignation. Prominent Protestant politician Gaius de Gaay Fortman the Minister of the Interior assumed the office of Deputy Prime Minister on 8 September 1977.
The De Jong cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 5 April 1967 until 6 July 1971. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Catholic People's Party (KVP), Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and Christian Historical Union (CHU) and the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) after the election of 1967. The cabinet was a centre-right coalition and had a substantial majority in the House of Representatives with prominent Catholic politician Piet de Jong the Minister of Defence in the previous cabinet serving as Prime Minister. Prominent Liberal politician Johan Witteveen a former Minister of Finances served as Deputy Prime Minister and returned as Minister of Finance, prominent Protestant politician Joop Bakker the Minister of Economic Affairs in the previous cabinet served as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Transport and Water Management and was given the portfolio of Suriname and Netherlands Antilles Affairs.
The Zijlstra cabinet was the executive branch of the Dutch Government from 22 November 1966 until 5 April 1967. The cabinet was formed by the christian-democratic Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) after the fall of the previous Cabinet Cals. The caretaker rump cabinet was a centrist coalition and had a minority in the House of Representatives with former Protestant Leader Jelle Zijlstra a former Minister of Finance serving as Prime Minister and dual served as Minister of Finance. Former Catholic Prime Minister Jan de Quay served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Water Management, Protestant Leader Barend Biesheuvel continued as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries and the responsibility for Suriname and Netherlands Antilles Affairs from previous cabinet.
This article gives an overview of Christian democracy in the Netherlands, which is also called confessionalism, including political Catholicism and Protestantism. It is limited to Christian democratic parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme.
Roman/Red is the nickname for a period in Dutch politics between approximately 1945 and 1958. This period was characterized by coalitions between the Catholic and social-democratic parties in the Netherlands and Belgium. "Roman" refers to the parties with Roman Catholic affiliation, and "red" refers to the colour associated with social democrats. During the Roman/Red period, the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) formed the core of several 'Roman/Red' cabinets, led primarily by Willem Drees.
Wilhelm Klaus Norbert Schmelzer was a Dutch politician, diplomat and economist who served as Leader of the Catholic People's Party (KVP) from 1963 to 1971 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1971 to 1973.
After the Dutch general election of 25 May 1977, a cabinet formation took place in the Netherlands. On 19 December 1977, this resulted in the First Van Agt cabinet. The coalition was formed by the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD).
{{cite book}}
: |work=
ignored (help)