State-informed Gereformeerde Partij

Reformed Political Party
Party leader	Kees van der Staaij
Party leader	Maarten van Leeuwen
Group Chairman, Second Chamber	Kees van der Staaij
Chairman of the First Chamber	Peter Schalk
EP Head of Delegation	Bert-Jan Ruissen
founding	April 24, 1918
Alignment	Christian fundamentalism , conservatism , EU skepticism
Colours)	Blue and orange
Sit in the First Chamber	2/75
Sit in the second chamber	3/150
Seats in the European Parliament	1/29
Number of members	30,081
European party	European Christian Political Movement
EP Group	European Conservatives and Reformers
http://www.sgp.nl (not available on Sundays)

The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij ( SGP ; German Reformed Political Party ) is a small reformed political party in the Netherlands . It was founded in Middelburg (Zeeland) in 1918 , making it the oldest still active party in the Netherlands.

The conservative Orthodox Calvinist party has been represented in the Second Chamber of Parliament since 1922 , and since 2012 with three members each. It achieves its best results in the so-called Dutch Bible Strip , which stretches between Zeeland, the south of Zuid-Holland , the Betuwe and Veluwe in Gelderland and the northwest of Overijssel . The SGP is based in The Hague.

Name and positions

The Dutch word Staatkundig means "political" in the sense of "related to the state". With reformeerd the party refers to a certain, strict direction of Calvinism . According to a survey from 2006, around a third of the SGP supporters are members of the Gereformeerde Gemeenten , a quarter are members of the Protestantse Kerk in Nederland , and a sixth belong to the Hersteld Hervormde Kerk . The rest are churchgoers from smaller Protestant communities such as the Gereformeerde Gemeenten in Nederland , the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken or the Oud Gereformeerde Gemeenten an.

The party sees its basis in its understanding of the Bible , which is set out in the Confessio Belgica and the Heidelberg Catechism , among others . It is one of the few Christian groups in Europe striving for a theocracy . It is part of their program to "ward off and eradicate all idolatry and false religion". To honor the Lord's day and to protect the Sunday rest, she wants to keep shops and entertainment venues closed on that day. As a result, the SGP's homepage cannot be reached either.

According to the historian Ewout Klei (member of the liberal D66 ), the party's stance changed around 2010: "Once the SGP was an isolated confessional party that was not very interested in day-to-day politics." Up until this point, Bas van der Vlies was the political leader, a veteran parliamentarian who expressed his views in parliament and was personally perceived as nice by the other parties, but who was otherwise ignored. The new leader Kees van der Staaij, on the other hand, offered his political support to the center-right government around Mark Rutte . Contrary to what the political left often thinks, the SGP politicians are not fundamentalists, but conservatives, according to Klei. No longer the fight against Catholicism or secularism, but against Islam and " political correctness " is now in the foreground. To do this, she also enters into alliances with conservative Catholics or the right-wing populist PVV .

Question of women

Since women were not allowed to be active members of the SGP at that time, nor to hold offices or mandates in their name, the district court ( arrondissementsrechtbank ) in The Hague issued a judgment on September 7, 2005, according to which the Dutch state was no longer allowed to pay subsidies to the SGP. According to the court, the party subsidy violates the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women , in which the Netherlands committed itself to combating discrimination against women, and also violates the first article of the Dutch Constitution , which sets out the principle of equality before the law is anchored. The Raad van State, however, conceded this decision with the argument that the program of a political party took precedence over these considerations, especially since women are free to join other political parties.

The court ruling and the decision of the Raad van State reignited the discussion about women's membership within the party. At a party conference on June 24, 2006, the SGP lifted the ban on female membership. In March 2007, a three-quarters majority of the members confirmed the change in the party statutes at a general assembly.

However, the SGP still did not put up any female candidates in elections for parliamentary bodies. In April 2010 the High Council (Supreme Court) came to the conclusion that the SGP's stance on female candidates was contrary to the UN Convention against Discrimination against Women. Therefore, the state must take action. In March 2013, the party's general assembly ( partijbijeenkomst ) decided to accept women as candidates. In August 2013, the SGP presented a woman, Lilian Janse-van der Weele, as a candidate for the first time, namely for the election of the city council ( gemeenteraad ) of Vlissingen , as the top candidate on their list. In March 2014 she was elected to the Vlissingen city council.

Election results

The SGP's electorate is primarily focused on the Bible Belt

Second chamber:

• 1918: 0.39% - no seat
• 1922: 0.91% - one seat
• 1925: 2.03% - two seats
• 1929: 2.27% - three seats
• 1933: 2.51% - three seats
• 1937: 1.94% - two seats
• 1946: 2.14% - two seats
• 1948: 2.37% - two seats
• 1952: 2.42% - two seats
• 1956: 2.26% - two seats (after enlargement of parliament: three)
• 1959: 2.16% - three seats
• 1963: 2.30% - three seats
• 1967: 2.01% - three seats
• 1971: 2.35% - three seats
• 1972: 2.21% - three seats
• 1977: 2.13% - three seats
• 1981: 1.97% - three seats
• 1982: 1.90% - three seats
• 1986: 1.74% - three seats
• 1989: 1.87% - three seats
• 1994: 1.73% - two seats
• 1998: 1.78% - three seats
• 2002: 1.72% - two seats
• 2003: 1.56% - two seats
• 2006 : 1.56% - two seats
• 2010 : 1.74% - two seats
• 2012 : 2.09% - three seats
• 2017 : 2.08% - three seats

For a long time the SGP had two seats in the First Chamber, from 2011 to 2015 only one and since then two again.

literature

• Jan Schippers: The SGP - a characteristic oak in a Dutch pasture landscape. Protestant, conservative and stable. In: Carla van Baalen et al. a .: A fragmented landscape. Contributions to the past and present of Dutch political parties. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2018, pp. 181–210.

Web links

Commons : Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (not available on Sundays)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SGP ledentallen per jaar (1945-). In: Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse Politieke Partijen. University of Groningen , February 12, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019 (Dutch). 
2. ↑ Jan Schippers: The SGP - a characteristic oak in a Dutch pasture landscape. Protestant, conservative and stable. In: Carla van Baalen et al. a .: A fragmented landscape. Amsterdam 2018, pp. 181–210, at p. 202.
3. ↑ https://www.uni-muenster.de/NiederlandeNet/aktuelles/archiv/2008/november/1104verkaufsoffen.html
4. ^ Ewout Klei: SGP is allang geen poldertaliban sea. In: Trouw , June 12, 2011.
5. ↑ SGP will get subsidy after all , Expatica. December 5, 2007.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
6. ↑ SGP-leden kiezen voor vrouwen op de kieslijst (SGP members vote for women on the ballot), accessed on March 20, 2017 (Dutch).
7. ↑ Vrouw kandidaat-lijsttrekker SGP Vlissingen (woman as top candidate on the list of the SGP in Vlissingen), accessed on March 20, 2017 (Dutch).