The Popular Independent Movement (french: Mouvement indépendant populaire), abbreviated to MIP, was a

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

ish

single-issue Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of factions ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the 1960s. It sought to represent the interests of the 12,000 people who had been

conscripted Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...

into the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

during the German occupation of Luxembourg during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Thewes (2006), p. 160 The party tried to claim compensation for those conscripted from the government of

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

as victims of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. A 1959 treaty between West Germany and Luxembourg, compensating Luxembourg for the German occupation and recognising the legitimacy of the actions of the resistance, was thought by the former conscripts to discriminate against them, who dubbed it the 'Treaty of Shame' (french: traité de la honte).Thewes (2006), p. 155 The treaty took two years to ratify, after a protracted debate in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

and a protest of 10,000 people in

Place Guillaume II Place Guillaume II is a town square in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The square lies to the west of Krautmaart and to the north of Boulevard Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the heart of Luxembourg's historic Ville Haute quarter. It is ...

, in

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

. The Popular Independent Movement was formed following these popular protests. A generally anti-establishment party without a clear programme on wider issues, it won 5.9% of the vote and two seats in the 1964 election, becoming the first new party since the 1945 election to win a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. The MIP merged with the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

before the 1968 legislative election. However, one of its deputies, rejecting this merger, created the Party of National Solidarity, which ran and won only 0.4% of the vote and no seats, leading to it dissolving. A later party, '' Enrôlés de Force'', was established in the 1970s with similar aims, and achieved parliamentary representation in the 1979 election. After the Luxembourg government's official recognition in 1981 that the Wehrmacht conscripts were victims, it disbanded.

Footnotes

References

* Defunct political parties in Luxembourg Luxembourg in World War II Democratic Party (Luxembourg) Political parties disestablished in 1968 1968 in Luxembourg Luxembourgian veterans' organisations {{Luxembourg-party-stub