The Independent Politics Netherlands ( nl, Onafhankelijke Politiek Nederland, OPNL) formerly known as the Independent Senate Group (Onafhankelijke Senaatsfractie) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the Dutch Senate with one

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

, representing several provincial parties. OPNL differs from other Dutch political parties in that it does not allow for individual membership, but only grants membership to provincial parties, or municipal local parties that are members of a provincial party. The OPNL only contests the elections for the Eerste Kamer and represents regionalist interests.

History

In 1995, several provincial parties and The Greens proposed their own independent list for the Senate elections, called the Platform of Independent Groups/Greens (''Platform van Onafhankelijke Groepen/De Groenen).''

Marten Bierman A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, dependin ...

(a member of The Greens) was elected through

preferential vote {{short description, Election systems Preferential voting or preference voting (PV) may refer to different election systems or groups of election systems: * Ranked voting methods, all election methods that involve ranking candidates in order of pre ...

. In 1999 Bierman was reelected. In 2003, Henk ten Hoeve became senator for the OSF. He was a member of the

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

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 ha ...

representing the Frisian National Party. 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 political party in the Netherlands that advocates pensioners' interests. The party was founded in 2009 by Maurice Koopman, Alexander Münninghoff, and Jan Nagel. Henk Krol served as the party's leader from 2016 to ...

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 assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

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

Ton Raven A.C.M. "Ton" Raven (born 3 November 1957) is a Dutch politician, who has been serving as a member of the Senate since 2021. In that body, he is the only member of Independent Politics Netherlands. Before he became a senator, Raven had been active ...

, a former

from

Sittard-Geleen Sittard-Geleen (; li, Zittert-Gelaen ) is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It was formed in 2001 from the former municipalities Sittard, Geleen and Born. The combined municipality has approximately 92,518 inhabitants (March 2019 ...

Name change

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

Members

OPNL consists of the following provincial parties:

Eerste Kamer Election results

References

External links

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