The New Middle Party (in Dutch: ''Nieuwe Midden Partij'', NMP) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

small business Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have fewer employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being able to ap ...

-interest

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 ...

. 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 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 f ...

, as such it styled itself as "New Middle Class Party" or "New Middle Party".

Ideology & Issues

The NMP is a party for

businesspeople A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

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 Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and ''laissez-faire'' economics.M. O. Dickerson et al., ''An ...

and seeks to reduce

bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

and

government debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt, or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit oc ...

. Meanwhile, it wants to protect the value of

old age pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

s and increase spending on

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

. 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 Development aid is a type of foreign/international/overseas aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. Closely-related concepts include: developm ...

Representation

This table show the NMP's results in elections to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

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 NMP was supported in the 1971 elections by floating voters, especially those who supported a similar party, the Farmers' Party during the

1967 elections Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establ ...

International Comparison

As a protest party of the middle class the NMP is comparable to the

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

or Danish progress parties, they were however far more successful. {{Liberal political parties in the Netherlands Liberal parties in the Netherlands Political parties established in 1970 Defunct political parties in the Netherlands