The Middle Party for City and Country (in Dutch: ''Middenpartij voor Stad en Land'', MPSL) was a Dutch political party defending the interests of the middle class. The Middle Party played only a marginal role in Dutch politics.

Party history

The party was founded by

Abraham Staalman Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jews ...

who had previously been member of the liberal Liberal State Party (LSP) after his own Middle Class Party had merged into that. Before the elections of 1929 Staalman had founded his own party and had left the LSP parliamentary party. The Middle Party entered in the 1929 elections, who held a personality-based campaign around the Bussum milk industrial and anti-toll campaigner Floris Vos. The Middle Party was able to win one seat in the House of Representatives. The party played a marginal role in parliament. Vos came into conflict with Staalman over his support for a law on mandatory closing times for shops. The party consequently fell apart in parties around Staalman and Vos, who fought legal battles over the ownership of the party's name. Neither party entered in the 1933 election.

Ideology and issues

The party wanted to increase public wealth by reducing the restrictions for trade, industry and agriculture. The most important issues of the Middle Party were the abolition of trade restriction, especially

toll roads A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemente ...

, import tariffs and several levies. The party wanted to reduce government expenditure by reducing the number of

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

s and the replacement of unemployment benefits by public works programs.

Leadership and support

This table shows the Middle Party's results in elections to the House of Representatives and

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, as well as the party's political leadership: the fractievoorzitter, is the chair of the parliamentary party and the lijsttrekker is the party's top candidate in the general election, these posts are normally taken by the party's leader.

Electorate

The electorate of the Middle Party was concentrated in Amsterdam and the Gooi, a region around

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...

, where Vos came from. The party drew its main support from farmers and the middle class.

References

{{Historical Dutch political parties Defunct nationalist parties in the Netherlands Political parties established in 1929 Political parties disestablished in 1932 1929 establishments in the Netherlands 1932 disestablishments in the Netherlands