Christian Democratic Party (Netherlands)

The Christian Democratic Party (in Dutch: Christen-Democratische Partij, CDP) was a Dutch left-wing Christian-democratic political party. The CDP played only a minor role in parliament. It is historically linked to both the Labour Party and the Christian Democratic Appeal.

Between 1894 and 1901 Andries Staalman was a member of the House of Representatives for the district of Den Helder. He was a member of the main Reformed party, the Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP). He operated on the left of the ARP and he advocated increased government interference in the economy and the extension of suffrage. In 1901 Staalman was re-elected into the House of Representatives on an Anti-Revolutionary Ticket, but he was dissatisfied by the conservative course of the ARP. Staalman therefore sat as an independent Anti-Revolutionary. He was dissatisfied by the conservative composition and program of the cabinet Abraham Kuyper had formed after the elections and did not support it.

Before the elections 1905 Staalman founded his own party the Christian Democratic Party to enter in the elections. He was unable to win a seat. Between 1909 and 1917 Staalman entered in several other elections. In 1917 Staalman was closely defeated by Pieter Oud for the Den Helder seat. In the 1918 elections, the first election with a system of proportional representation and male universal suffrage the threshold for admission to the House of Representatives was relatively low, one needed more than half of a percentage of the vote to be elected. Consequently the CDP was elected with only 10,000 votes (that is .8% of vote). Staalman played only a minor role in parliament.

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