Reformed Political Party

The Reformed Political Party ( , SGP) is a conservative Reformed ChristianThese sources describe the SGP as a Calvinist (Reformed Christian) political party:
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* political party in the Netherlands. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands existing in its present form, and has been in opposition for its entire existence. Since 1925, it has won between 1.5% and 2.5% of the votes in general elections. Owing to its orthodox political ideals and its traditional role in the opposition, the party is considered a testimonial party.

History

Foundation

The SGP was founded in 1918 by orthodox Protestants led by Yerseke pastor Gerrit Hendrik Kersten, some of which originated from the Protestant Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP). After the Pacification of 1917, compulsory voting and proportional representation was introduced in the Netherlands. The founders did not want to vote for existing parties, but saw an opportunity for a smaller party because of proportional representation. The party first participated in the 1918 general election. The hastily organised campaign focused on the ARP and its support of what SGP called state coercion, such as compulsory vaccination and insurance law. Because some might object to him combining being polician and pastor, Kersten was not a candidate, but instead Barend Lemans and Pieter Gijze. The party received over 5,000 votes, not enough for a seat.

Despite not winning a seat, the SGP continued its activities In 1919, the party board started a petition against the (Disability Act), which forced workers to pay premiums to insure against disability. It received 4,800 signatures. The party encouraged its members to send back their stamp cards which tracked their premiums. In December 1920, the Senate passed a law that would accommodate their conscientious objections. A similar petition against compulsory vaccination received 27,059 signatures in 1922, but sorted no effect.

1922–1945

For the 1922 general election, Kersten was lead candidate, accepting objections within his electorate. The party won one seat in the House of Representatives, which was taken by Kersten. His speeches in parliament regularly received media attention, for example when he opposed the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In the 1925 general election, the party won another seat which was taken by Pieter Zandt.

Later that year, the anti-Catholic SGP would cause the fall of the second Ruijs de Beerenbrouck cabinet in what became known as the Night of Kersten (). During the debate on the budget of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Kersten had proposed cutting the budget of the diplomatic mission of the Netherlands to the Holy See. The amendment received a majority, because it was supported by the Protestant Christian Historical Union (CHU), which was in cabinet together with the Catholic General League. It resulted in more publicity and a third seat in the 1929 general election, which was taken by . Kersten, Zandt and Van Dis formed the parliamentary group until the 1937 general election, when the SGP lost one seat. The SGP did not achieve much in parliament other than during the Night of Kersten, but achieved some smaller goals outside of parliament through contact with the ministers.

Kersten saw the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940 as a punishment for its sins. He rejected resistance against the German occupation and was seen as friendly towards them. After the war, he was nominated again as lead candidate, but he was barred from the House of Representatives for his stances during the war.

1945–present

Kersten was succeeded by Zandt, under whose leadership the SGP was very stable, continually getting 2% of votes. In the 1956 general election, the SGP profited from the enlargement of parliament, and entered the Senate for the first time. It lost that seat in 1960 Senate election, but regained it in the 1971 Senate election.

In 1961 Zandt died and was succeeded by Van Dis sr. After ten years he stood down in favour of Reverend Hette Abma, who also stepped down after ten years, in favour of Henk van Rossum, a civil engineer. In the 1984 European Parliament election, the SGP joined the two other orthodox Protestant parties, the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF) and the Reformed Political League (GPV). They won one seat in the European Parliament, which was taken by SGP member Leen van der Waal, a mechanical engineer.

In 1986, Van Rossum was succeeded by Bas van der Vlies. In the 1994 election the party lost one seat in the House, regained it in 1998, and lost it again in 2002. During the 2003 cabinet formation, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) held talks with the SGP — the first time that the SGP was seriously considered as a possible coalition partner. Ultimately, the Democrats 66 joined the second Balkenende cabinet instead of the SGP, mostly because of the ideological differences between the VVD and the SGP.

In 2010, Kees van der Staaij succeeded Van der Vlies. During the 2010 cabinet formation, the negotiating CDA, VVD and Party for Freedom (PVV) took into account some wishes of the SGP, so that SGP would provide confidence and supply in the Senate where the first Rutte cabinet did not have a majority.

Ideology and political positions

As a Protestant fundamentalist party the SGP draws much from its ideology from the Reformed Christian tradition, specifically the ecclesiastical doctrinal standards known as the Three Forms of Unity, including an unamended version of the Belgic Confession (). It includes 21 words that were removed by the synod of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands in 1905, which state that the government must "eliminate and eradicate all idolatry and false religion, so as to destroy the kingdom of Antichrist". This contrasted with the other two Protestant parties, the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) and the Christian Historical Union (CHU), which had accepted the change.

Church and state

The SGP does favor some, but no strict, separation of church and state. The church and state should cooperate, including the advancement of the true faith. The state should not curtail the freedom of the church, while the church similarly should not impose upon the state. Abma rejected theocracy as form of government, instead harmonizing theocracy and democracy. Over time, it has however become more realistic, accepting the religiously neutral state.

The SGP supports the freedom of conscience, but not an unconditional freedom of religion. For example, it rejects the freedom of publicly exercising religion when they consider it idolatry or false religion.

Women's rights

The SGP generally opposes women's suffrage, both passive and active. SGP believes it is against a "woman's calling". From the start, the party is not united on this issue. Opponents argue that the biblical argumentation is not clear or that this could hurt them electorally. In 1989 the party changed its principles, approving women voting if they can answer this to God in their conscience.

Trans rights

In 2024, the SGP introduced a motion in the House of Representatives to abolish the so-called “transgender law” which had been brought in under the previous Dutch government and would enable people under the age of 16 to legally declare their gender without requiring a medical diagnosis.

Election results

House of Representatives

European Parliament

Between 1984 and 2019, the SGP filed joint candidate lists with the Christian Union and its predecessors. See CU-SGP for these election results.

Representation

Leadership

House of Representatives

Senate

European Parliament

Since the 1984 European Parliament election the party has had one elected representative in the European Parliament. From 1984 to 1997 Leen van der Waal was the representative, from 1999 Bas Belder was the party's representative, succeeded by Bert-Jan Ruissen in the 2019 European Parliament election. In European Parliament elections, the SGP formed one candidate list with the Christian Union, called CU–SGP, until the 2024 European Parliament election. Currently the SGP is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR Group) in the European Parliament.

Electorate

The SGP has had a very stable electorate since first entering the States-General in 1922. Since winning a second seat in 1926, it has usually varied between two and three seats in the House of Representatives.

Most of its electorate is formed by so-called pietistic Reformed Protestants (""), Reformed Protestants for whom personal religious experience is very important. Most of the Old Reformed Congregations and the Reformed Congregations are considered pietistic Reformed Protestants. Pietistic Reformed Protestants are also present in the Christian Reformed Churches, the Reformed Association in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and the Restored Reformed Church. Not all SGP voters are however pietistic Reformed Protestants, and not all pietistic Reformed Protestants vote SGP.

Geographical

The SGP's support is concentrated geographically in the Dutch Bible Belt, a band of strongly Reformed and mostly rural municipalities ranging from Zeeland in the South via Goeree-Overflakkee and the Alblasserwaard in South Holland and the Veluwe in Gelderland to the Western part of Overijssel, around Staphorst. Outside the Bible Belt, the SGP also performs well in Urk, Uddel and Rijssen-Holten. The geographical concentration of SGP voters has however decreased between 1956 and 2017. Its votes have shifted away from Utrecht and South Holland towards Zeeland, Gelderland, Overijssel, with a modest turnout in Drenthe and Gelderland.

Socio-demographic

Despite SGP's opposition to women's suffrage, it draws significant support from women. In the period 1971–1977, when the Dutch National Voter Survey started, around half of its voters were female. This declined to 34% in 1989–1998, but rose back to half in 2010–2017. In the March 2021 general election and the March 2023 provincial elections, nearly 60% of SGP voters were female.

Organisation

Organisational structure

The highest organ of the SGP is the congress, which is formed by delegates from the municipal branches. It convenes once every year. It appoints the party board and decides the order of the Senate, House of Representatives, European Parliament candidates list and has the last say over the party program. The SGP chairman is always a minister. Since 2001 this position is ceremonial, as the general chair leads the party's organisation.

The party has 245 municipal branches and has a provincial federation in each province, except for Limburg.

Membership

Female membership

Initially, women were not allowed to be member of the party. In 1983, the first woman, W. van Donge-van Bezooijen, applied for membership, but The Hague electoral association had rejected her application because she was a woman. She then wrote to the national party board, after which she and Riet Grabijn-van Putten became member in 1985. The party board however changed its position in 1991, rejecting membership for women. This position was supported by ninety percent of electoral associations in 1993. The party was aware that this might be against the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Meanwhile, public opinion in the Netherlands turned against SGP's decision not to allow women. UN committees also recommended intervention. In 2003, the Clara Wichmann Institute and some other organisations sued the Dutch government, for subsidising SGP. The district court of The Hague ruled that the party could no longer receive subsidies from the government, while it did not force the SGP to change it statutes. Based on the verdict, the party decided to allow female membership, while still not allowing them on candidate lists. At the end of 2017, SGP had 800 female members.

Meanwhile in 2005, the Dutch government had refused the SGP's application for subsidies. The administrative law division of the district court of The Hague supported the rejection. However, the Council of State overturned this decision in December 2007, maintaining that a party's political philosophy takes precedence, and that women have the opportunity to join other political parties where they can obtain a leadership role. Two weeks later, The Hague courts of appeal ruled on the first case that the SGP should also allow women's passive suffrage. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands affirmed this decision in 2010 and an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights was unsuccessful in 2012. As a result, the SGP changed its internal regulations to allow women to be candidates in elections.

Some women have been candidates starting with the 2014 municipal elections, with lead candidate Lilian Janse becoming the first female elected representative for the SGP when she was elected municipal councilor in Vlissingen in 2014.

Linked organisations

The party publishes the Banner () two-weekly since 1921. Its think tank was founded in 1974, and it was renamed after Walloon theologian Guido de Brès in 1992. It publishes the quarterly magazine Zicht (Sight). The youth organisation of the SGP is called the Reformed Political Party Youth (SGPJ), which with its approximately 12,000 members is the largest political youth organization in the Netherlands.

The SGP participates in the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy, a democracy assistance organisation of seven Dutch political parties.

Pillarised organisations

The SGP has close links with several other orthodox Protestant organisations, such as several Reformed churches and the newspaper '' Reformatorisch Dagblad''. Together they form a small but strong orthodox-Reformed pillar.

Relationships to other parties

Until 1963, the SGP was relatively isolated in parliament. The strongly antipapal SGP refused to cooperate with either the Catholic People's Party or the secular People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Labour Party (PvdA). The also Protestant, larger Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) had some sympathy for the SGP, but cooperated more tightly with the KVP and the other Protestant party, the Christian Historical Union (CHU). In 1963 another orthodox Protestant party, the Reformed Political League (GPV) entered parliament, in 1981 they were joined by the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF). Together these three parties formed the "Small Christian parties". They shared the same orthodox Protestant political ideals and had the same political strategy, as testimonial parties. They cooperated in municipalities, both in municipal executives, where the parties were strong, as well as in common municipal parties, where the parties were weak. In the 1984 European Parliamentary election the parties presented a common list and they won one seat in parliament. After 1993 the cooperation between the GPV and the RPF intensified, but the SGP's position at the time on female suffrage prevented the SGP joining this closer cooperation. However, in 2000 the GPV and RPF merged to form the ChristianUnion (CU). Traditionally the SGP and the CU worked together closely as they were both based on Protestant Christian politics. Recently however, as the CU has moved more towards the centre-left, discernible differences of philosophy between the SGP and CU have caused the parties to not join in elections. The most notable example was the 2011 Senate election where the SGP and CU did not combine their votes.

Citations

References

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Further reading

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External links

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Notes

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Anti-Catholic organizations
Anti-suffragist organizations
Christian fundamentalist organizations in Europe
European Conservatives and Reformists Group member parties
Reformed Christianity in the Netherlands
Confessional parties in the Netherlands
Conservative parties in the Netherlands
Dutch Reformed Church
Political parties established in 1918
Political parties in the Netherlands
Protestant political parties
Social conservative parties
1918 establishments in the Netherlands
Monarchist parties in the Netherlands
Eurosceptic parties in the Netherlands
Organisations based in South Holland
Organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights in Europe
Anti-LGBTQ Christian organizations
European Christian Political Party