The Independent Politics Netherlands (, OPNL), formerly known as the Independent Senate Group (, OSF), is a federation of local and regional

political parties in the Netherlands This article lists Political party, political parties in the Netherlands. The country has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, and any one party has little chance of gaining power alone; parties work with each other to form coa ...

that competes in elections to the Dutch Senate. OPNL is composed of provincial and municipal-level parties, and has no individual members. OPNL only contests the elections for the Senate, where it represents regional politics. Auke van der Goot, a member of the

Frisian National Party The Frisian National Party (; , FNP) is a Frisian nationalist political party in the Netherlands. The FNP is mostly involved in Frisian politics. The Independent Senate Group represents the FNP on a national level, the EFA represents the FNP ...

, represents OPNL in the Senate.

History

In 1995, several provincial parties and The Greens proposed their own independent list for the Senate elections, called the Platform of Independent Groups/The Greens (''Platform van Onafhankelijke Groepen/De Groenen''). Marten Bierman (a member of The Greens) was elected through preferential vote. In 1999 Bierman was reelected. In 2003, Henk ten Hoeve became senator for the OSF. He was a member of the

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

states-provincial The provincial council (, PS), also known as the States-Provincial, is the provincial parliament and legislative assembly in each of the provinces of the Netherlands. It is elected for each province simultaneously once every four years and has ...

representing the

. He remained senator until 2011. Ten Hoeve was succeeded by Kees de Lange. De Lange was elected on the OSF list, but was a member of the

50PLUS 50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a list of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands that advocates List of pensioners' parties, pensioners' interests with a Centrism, centrist political line. The party was founded in ...

party, with which the OSF had a vote sharing agreement, as the OSF did not achieve enough votes to get a seat independently. In 2015 De Lange broke with the OSF due to a disagreement concerning the possible cooperation between the OSF and the People's Party of Limburg of Jos van Rey, a former VVD

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

and representative plagued by corruption scandals. In 2015, Henk ten Hoeve became senator of the OSF for a second time. Between 2019 and 2021 Gerben Gerbrandy, former mayor of

Achtkarspelen Achtkarspelen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Friesland in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, it had a population of 27,900. History The name ''Achtkarspelen'', literally me ...

, has been the senator representing the OSF. Gerbrandy left the Senate in January 2021 and was replaced by Ton Raven, a former

from

Sittard-Geleen Sittard-Geleen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It was formed in 2001 from the former municipalities Sittard, Geleen and Born (Netherlands), Born. The combined municipality has approximat ...

. In 2021, the organisation's name was changed to Independent Politics Netherlands.

Member parties

Electoral results

Senate elections

References

External links

Official website
{{Political parties in the Netherlands Regionalist parties in the Netherlands Political parties established in 1999 1999 establishments in the Netherlands