New Right (Dutch: ''Nieuw Rechts'', abbr. NR) was a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

Dutch

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

, founded by Michiel Smit in February 2003 and dissolved in December 2007.

History

Michiel Smit was secretary of

Pim Fortuyn Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (; 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in ...

's local Leefbaar Rotterdam party. He was elected into the

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

city council in March 2002. After the assassination of Fortuyn, May 6, 2002, the Leefbaar Rotterdam leadership was handed over to

Ronald Sørensen Ronald Sørensen (born 4 May 1947) is a Dutch politician. He was a founder of the Livable Rotterdam party and also served in the Senate (Netherlands), Senate for the Party for Freedom between 2011 and 2015. Early life Sørensen is of Norwegia ...

. Michiel Smit was forced out of the Leefbaar Rotterdam party though in February 2003, after it became public that Smit participated on various rightwing radical internet fora, one of which was the American-based '' Stormfront''. However, Smit held on to his seat in the Rotterdam city council, forming a one-person party called Nieuw Rechts. From this position, Smit started to build up the Nieuw Rechts party. New Right worked with the nationalist NNP party (whose chairman Florens van der Kooi worked for a time at the New Right party office) to form the ''Actiecomité Stop MARTIJN'' in 2003, which campaigned against the pedophiles of the Vereniging MARTIJN. In the first electoral campaign (the 2004 European Elections), the party attracted 0.3% of the votes, and no seats. In the Dutch municipal elections of 2006, New Right fielded candidates in

Ridderkerk Ridderkerk () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which is covered by water. The municipality of Ridderkerk also includes th ...

Almelo Almelo () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek. Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle o ...

and

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

, obtaining 0.06% of the total vote and one seat in the council of Ridderkerk.

Ideology

The most important issue for the New Right was

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

and integration of

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s. Smit held then controversial views like forced repatriation of criminal foreigners and mandatory Dutch services in mosques. These views have since become mainstream in Dutch politics.

References

External links

* (Mar. 2003 - Jun. 2008) * (Apr. 2005 - Jan. 2006) * (Jun. 2006 - Feb. 2008) {{Defunct political parties in the Netherlands Defunct nationalist parties in the Netherlands Euronat members Far-right politics in the Netherlands Right-wing populism in the Netherlands Right-wing populist parties Political parties established in 2003 Political parties disestablished in 2007 2003 establishments in the Netherlands 2007 disestablishments in the Netherlands Government of Rotterdam Ridderkerk