User:Dajasj/sandbox/KDP

The Catholic Democratic Party (Dutch: Katholiek Democratische Partij KDP) was a small Catholic political party in the Netherlands from 1933 to 1939. The party was founded on 1 September 1933, through a merger between the Catholic Democratic League (Dutch: Katholiek Democratische Bond, KDB) and the Roman Catholic People's Party (Dutch: Roomsch-Katholieke Volkspartij, RKVP). In the 1933 elections, the RKVP won one seat in the Dutch House of Representatives, taken by Pius Maria Arts.

History

The Catholic Democratic League (Dutch: Katholiek Democratische Bond, KDB)had been founded on 18 January 1933, by Johannes Antonius Veraart and his like-minded colleagues. Veraart, who gained prominence as the chairman of the progressive Catholic association Verbond St. Michaël, left the Roman Catholic State Party (RKSP) a month earlier due to the party’s conservative stance on social policies during the economic crisis. Despite his efforts, Veraart's KDB failed to win any seats in the 1933 general election.

The disappointing election results for the KDB led the party to seek cooperation with the more successful Roman Catholic People's Party (RKVP). By early July 1933, the two parties had reached an agreement, and on 1 September 1933, they officially merged to form the KDP. At a two-day founding congress held in The Hague on September 23-24, 1933, the party adopted new statutes and elected a leadership team. Veraart became the party chairman and editor-in-chief of the party newspaper Onze Vaan (formerly the RKVP’s paper). C.D. Wesseling, who had served as secretary for the RKVP, took on the same role for the KDP, while Arts represented the KDP in parliament. The party’s platform was based on the crisis program previously drawn up by Veraart for the KDB.

In its first year, the KDP experienced moderate success. Its membership increased from 2,792 in September 1933 to almost 3,500 by November 1934, with an additional 2,000 members joining by April 1935. Interestingly, most of the new members were not from North Brabant, traditionally an RKVP stronghold, but from the provinces of North Holland and South Holland. This growing membership allowed the party to publish a monthly theoretical journal, Staatkunde, starting in March 1934. In October 1934, the Catholic Workers' Party (Dutch: Roomsch Katholieke Arbeiderspartij, RKAP) also joined the KDP, further strengthening its ranks. In the 1934 municipal elections in Enschede, the KDP saw a small but encouraging increase in votes compared to 1931.

The KDP entered the 1935 provincial elections with high hopes, expecting to gain around 100,000 votes. However, the party fell far short of this goal, securing only 57,326 votes, amounting to 1.5% of the total vote and earning just five provincial seats. Following this disappointing result, Veraart resigned as party chairman and was succeeded by A.P.C. Peters. Under Peters' leadership, the party fared even worse in the municipal elections later that year.

The KDP faced further setbacks as splinter groups left the party, with some returning to the RKSP or forming new dissident parties, such as the faction led by F.A.C. Donders from Tilburg. The party also struggled against opposition from the Catholic Church, the Catholic press, and Catholic labor unions. KDP members were sometimes denied the sacraments, and several were expelled from Catholic organizations. In March 1937, the Catholic Workers' Union (RKWV) officially prohibited its members from joining the KDP. In response, the KDP established its own union, the Nederlandsch Verbond van Katholieke Werkers, but it had limited success.

The numerous setbacks led to a sharp decline in the KDP’s membership, which fell to just over 3,600 by April 1937. The parliamentary elections of that year were disastrous for the party, with only 27,665 votes (0.68% of the total), less than half of what it had garnered in 1935. In former RKVP strongholds like Tilburg and Limburg, many voters abandoned the party. Unable to recover from these defeats, the KDP saw its leadership change again, with Pius Maria Arts replacing Peters as party chairman in June 1937.

Financial difficulties compounded the party’s troubles, forcing it to downsize its newspaper, Onze Vaan. By March 1938, the party's membership had dwindled to about 1,400. Around the same time, Veraart initiated discussions with the RKSP, as the ideological gap between the two parties had narrowed. The KDP had abandoned its demand for unilateral disarmament, and the RKSP had adopted more progressive social policies. On 11 January 1939, a joint committee led by Henri Marchant met for the first time to prepare for the merger of the two parties.

On 19 February 1939, the KDP held its final congress in Utrecht, where it voted to dissolve and merge with the RKSP. A small group of diehard members refused to join the merger and instead formed the Catholic People's Party (Dutch: Katholieke Volkspartij, KVP). This splinter group published a newspaper called De Nieuwe Vaan and participated in the 1939 municipal elections in several cities, including Nijmegen, but achieved little success before fading into obscurity.

Ideology

The KDP positioned itself as a socially progressive party. It advocated for a public legal organization of the economy as an alternative to capitalism and pushed for unilateral national disarmament. In religious and cultural matters, the KDP held firmly to Catholic principles, supporting the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Vatican and promoting the right to hold public religious processions. Politically, the KDP sought to form a coalition with the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), the Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB), and the small Christian Democratic Union (CDU), rejecting cooperation with the more conservative RKSP.

Electorate

Its support primarily came from Catholic industrial cities like Tilburg, Eindhoven and Enschede.