The Independent Politics Netherlands ( nl, Onafhankelijke Politiek Nederland, OPNL) formerly known as the Independent Senate Group (Onafhankelijke Senaatsfractie) is a

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 ideological or p ...

in the Dutch Senate with one senator, representing several provincial parties. OPNL differs from other Dutch political parties in that it does not allow for individual membership, but only grants membership to provincial parties, or municipal local parties that are members of a provincial party. The OPNL only contests the elections for the

Eerste Kamer The Senate ( or simply ' , literally "First Chamber of the States General", or sometimes ' ) is the upper house of the States General, the legislature of the Netherlands. Its 75 members are elected on lists by the members of the twelve States-P ...

and represents regionalist interests.

History

In 1995, several provincial parties and

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

proposed their own independent list for the Senate elections, called the Platform of Independent Groups/Greens (''Platform van Onafhankelijke Groepen/De Groenen).'' Marten Bierman (a member of

) was elected through preferential vote. In 1999 Bierman was reelected. In 2003,

Henk ten Hoeve Hendrik (Henk) ten Hoeve (born 15 September 1946) is a Dutch politician. He led the Independent Senate Group (OSF) in the Senate of the States-Generaal from 10 June 2003, until 7 June 2011. From 9 June 2015 to 11 June 2019 he was again leading ...

became senator for the OSF. He was a member of the

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

states-provincial representing the

Frisian National Party The Frisian National Party ( fy, Fryske Nasjonale Partij; nl, Friese Nationale Partij, FNP) is a Friesland, Frisian nationalist political party in the Netherlands. The FNP is mostly involved in Frisian politics. The Independent Senate Group rep ...

. He remained senator until 2011. Ten Hoeve was succeeded by Kees de Lange. De Lange was elected on the OSF list, but was a member of the

50PLUS 50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a political party in the Netherlands that advocates pensioners' interests. The party was founded in 2009 by Maurice Koopman, Alexander Münninghoff, and Jan Nagel. Henk Krol served as the party's leader from 2016 to ...

party, with which the OSF had a vote sharing agreement, as the OSF did not achieve enough votes to get a seat independently. In 2015 De Lange broke with the OSF due to a disagreement concerning the possible cooperation between the OSF and the People's Party of Limburg of Jos van Rey, a former

VVD The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a Conservative liberalism, conservative-liberalRudy Andeweg, Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingsto ...

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

and

representative Representative may refer to: Politics * Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people * House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities * Legislator, som ...

plagued by corruption scandals. In 2015, Henk ten Hoeve became senator of the OSF for a second time. Between 2019 and 2021 Gerben Gerbrandy, former mayor of Achtkarspelen, has been the senator representing the OSF. Gerbrandy left the Senate in January 2021 and was replaced by Ton Raven, a former

from

Sittard-Geleen Sittard-Geleen (; li, Zittert-Gelaen ) is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It was formed in 2001 from the former municipalities Sittard, Geleen and Born. The combined municipality has approximately 92,518 inhabitants (March 2019) ...

Name change

In 2021, the party's name was changed to ''Independent Politics Netherlands''.

Members

OPNL consists of the following provincial parties:

Eerste Kamer Election results

References

External links

Official website
{{Dutch Political Parties Regionalist parties in the Netherlands Political parties established in 1999 1999 establishments in the Netherlands