New Middle Party

The New Middle Party (in Dutch: Nieuwe Midden Partij, NMP) is a Dutch small business-interest political party. The NMP is a marginal party and was only successful during the 1971 elections.

History

The NMP was founded in 1970. It entered in the 1971 elections, and won two seats. Several months after the elections one of its MPs, De Jong, came into conflict with the party's chair, Te Pas, because he was involved in lawsuits over corruption. De Jong continued as independent MP. In the 1972 election the party won no seats.

The party continues to exist and unsuccessfully competed in the 2002 election.

Name

The party saw itself as the continuation of the pre-war Middle Class Party, as such it styled itself as "New Middleclass Party" or "New Middle Party".

Ideology & Issues

The NMP is a party for businesspeople and shopkeepers. It also appeals to forgotten groups like the elderly, unmarried and disabled. It wants to spread taxes and benefits more equally between social groups. It is fiscally conservative and seeks to reduce bureaucracy and government debt. Meanwhile, it wants to protect the value of old age pensions and increase spending on healthcare. Furthermore, it wants to end "car bullying", that is taxes on petrol, driven kilometers and car-purchases. It advocates limited migration into the EU and cutting spending on development cooperation.

Middle Class Party

The Middenstandspartij (in Dutch: Middenstandspartij, MP) was a Dutch political party representing middle class interests. It played only a marginal role in Dutch politics.

Party History

The MP was founded by Abraham Staalman a businessman from Amsterdam. The 1918 elections were the first election in the Netherlands which used a system of proportional representation. With about 12500 votes (1% of the votes) the MP won one seat, as did several other one or two person parties. After the elections the election law became more restrictive. Between 1918 and 1921 the MP cooperated in the neutral parliamentary party, with four other one or two seat parties, namely the Peasants' League, the Economic League, the Neutral Party and the Alliance for Democratization of the Army. The parliamentary party was led by former minister Willem Treub. In 1921 several of these parties, including the Middle Class Party merged into the Liberal State Party, together with two larger liberal parties.