Centre Democrats (Netherlands)
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Centre Democrats
Centrum Democraten |
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| Leader | Hans Janmaat (1984-2002) |
| Chairperson | Hans Janmaat (1984-2002) |
| Secretary-General | Wil Schuurman (1987-2002) |
| Leader in the House of Representatives | Hans Janmaat (1989-1998) |
| Founder | Hans Janmaat |
| Founded | November 7, 1984 |
| Dissolved | April 18, 2002 |
| Split from | Centre Party |
| Headquarters | The Hague |
| Membership (mid-1990s) | 1,000–4,000 |
| Ideology | Nationalism, cultural conservatism, social conservatism, Euroscepticism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Colors | Red and Blue |
| Slogan | Full = Full |
The Centre Democrats (Dutch: Centrum Democraten, CD) was a political party in the Netherlands. Founded in 1984 by members who split out from the Centre Party (CP), the Centre Democrats was joined one month later by the only CP Member of Parliament—Hans Janmaat. Janmaat went on to become the leader of the party, which subsequently became strongly centered on his person. The newly formed Centre Democrats represented the more moderate faction of the Centre Party, but espoused an anti-immigration and nationalist ideology. Their claims of standing in the centre of the political landscape have thus been disputed by political scientists.
The Centre Democrats did not gain enough votes for parliamentary representation in the 1986 general election, but Janmaat won back his seat after the following election in 1989. In 1994 he was joined by two additional representatives won by the party. The CD was subject to a cordon sanitaire by the other parties in Parliament, although some parties rather sought to confront it following its 1994 success. The CD failed to win any seats in the 1998 election, and it fell into disarray until it was finally dissolved in 2002.
The Centre Democrats was founded on 7 November 1984 by a few low-key members who broke away from the Centre Party (CP). On 5 December the same year the only Member of Parliament for the Centre Party, Hans Janmaat, changed party to the Centre Democrats and became its seventh member. Janmaat believed that by steering a more moderate course, the Centre Party would attract more voters at the polls, but was expelled by the party's hardliners. In an attempt to appear more mainstream than the Centre Party, the new Centre Democrats' slogans were more moderate and less explicit. As opposed to the Centre Party's Eigen volk eerst ("Our People First"), the Centre Democrats' manifesto used the Dutch proverb Oost West Thuis Best ("East, West, Home Best"). After Janmaat joined the Centre Democrats, the party became known as "his" party. Despite widespread media coverage generated by Janmaat's reputation, party membership remained small in the first few years.
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