Onafhankelijke Senaatsfractie
The Onafhankelijke Senaatsfractie (Dutch for "Independent Senate Group") is a parliamentary group in the First Chamber of the Dutch Parliament. It is a member of parliament who represents the interests of smaller, predominantly regional parties. The OSF also receives support from senior citizens' parties. "Senate" is an unofficial name for the First Chamber.
The parliamentary group is supported by a civil association of the same name. The member parties are each represented by one member at the general assembly. There should be only one member party per province, but exceptions can be decided upon.
Origin and history
The members of the First Chamber are elected by the provincial parliaments. Since some smaller parties alone do not have enough votes for their own MPs, they jointly choose a list whose MPs appear in the First Chamber as an Independent Senate Group. This first took place in 1995. At that time, Marten Bierman was elected to the First Chamber by the De Groenen micro-party (not to be confused with GroenLinks ). Bierman was re-elected in 1999, and in the 2003, 2007 and 2015 elections, Henk ten Hoeve was elected from the Fryske Nasjonale Partij (Frisian National Party). From 2011 to 2015, Kees de Lange from the Seniors' Party 50PLUS was OSF Senator, and since then it has been Hendrik ten Hoeve. So the parliamentary group has so far only consisted of one MP. Since the first chamber has in fact much less power than the second and the MPs only work part-time, the influence of the OSF is minimal in every respect.
Elections, supporters and goals
In the elections to the First Chamber on May 29, 2007, the list of the OSF entered into a list connection with the liberal parties Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie and Democrats 66 in order to better exploit the remaining votes. The OSF received votes from Groningen, Friesland, Utrecht, Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant and Limburg. In the election year 2011, the provincial votes of the previous OSF parties were no longer enough for one seat. Therefore, Kees de Lange from the relatively successful senior citizens' party 50PLUS was placed at number one on the joint list.
Behind the OSF are mainly regional parties, of which the Fryske Nasjonale Partij is the most important. Some of the remaining regional departments of Leefbaar Nederland also supported the OSF list. As "Members of the OSF" the website named in May 2015:
- Drenthe: Onafhankelijke Partij Drenthe (OPD), Drents Belang (DB), Sterk Lokaal (SL)
- Flevoland: OPA Flevoland
- Friesland: Fryske Nasjonale Partij (FNP), Provinciaal Belang Fryslân (PBF)
- Groningen: Partij voor het Noorden (PvhN), Groninger Belang
- Limburg: Lokaal-Limburg
- Noord-Brabant: Lokaal Brabant (LB)
- Noord-Holland: Ouderen Partij Noord-Holland
- Utrecht: Provincie @ Inwonersbelangen
- Zeeland: Partij voor Zeeland (PvZ)
According to the website, the OSF sees its task in supporting the work of the First Chamber in an independent manner, creating better conditions for provincial parties, carrying out scientific research and structuring the political culture and structure. The latter is done with the awareness that political groupings at that level should be active at the municipal and provincial level and not the subdivisions of national parties.
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ Independent Senate Group en Eerste Kamerverkiezingen 2007 , call on May 28, 2015.
- ↑ OSF: Leden OSF , accessed May 28, 2015
- ↑ OSF: Wat is OSF ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed on July 7, 2018.
