Political Party of Radicals
Politieke Partij Radikalen |
|
---|---|
Leader |
Jacques Aarden (1968–1972) Bas de Gaay Fortman (1972–1977) Ria Beckers (1977–1989) |
Founded | 27 April 1968 |
Dissolved | 16 February 1991 |
Split from | Catholic People's Party |
Merged into | GreenLeft |
Ideology |
Christian left Green politics |
Political position | Left-wing |
National affiliation | Rainbow (1989) |
European Parliament group | Rainbow Group |
The Political Party of Radicals (Dutch: Politieke Partij Radikalen, PPR) was a progressive Christian and green political party in the Netherlands. The PPR played a relatively small role in Dutch politics and merged with other left-wing parties to form GreenLeft (Dutch: GroenLinks) in 1991.
The foundation of the PPR is linked to formation of the De Jong cabinet and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
After the 1967 general election it became clear that a centre-right cabinet would be formed by the Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP) and Christian Historical Union (CHU), the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Progressive forces within the KVP and ARP had hoped for the formation of a centre-left cabinet with the Labour Party (PvdA) without the participation of the CHU and VVD.
In March 1967 a group of "regret voters" (ARP-members who regretted voting ARP) published an advertisement in the Protestant newspaper Trouw, aimed at the leadership of the ARP: they claimed that the left-wing, so called "evangelically radical", ideal of the ARP could not be realised in a cabinet with the VVD. In April this group began to meet regularly with dissidents from the KVP in the Hotel Americain, this gave the group the name "American Group". The group included Wilhelm de Gaay Fortman, prominent ARP politician, his son Bas de Gaay Fortman, Jo Cals, former KVP prime minister, and Ruud Lubbers, member of the KVP and future Prime Minister. In May the group became a formal organisation, the Working Group Christian Radicals, which was oriented at making their mother parties more progressive. They had some success in the KVP, which was seeking new allies and a new image, after it had lost the 1967 general election.