Humanist Democratic Centre (, CDH) was a
Christian democratic
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
and centrist
French-speaking
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in ...
political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary
Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) which had been the country's governing party for much of the post-war period. It continued to be called the Christian Social Party (, PSC) until 2002 when it was renamed the Humanist Democratic Centre. It was refounded as
Les Engagés in 2022.
History
The PSC was officially founded in 1972. The foundation was the result of the split of the unitary
Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) into the Dutch-speaking
Christian People's Party (CVP) and the French-speaking Christian Social Party (PSC), following the increased linguistic tensions after the crisis at the
Catholic University of Leuven in 1968. A similar split already happened in 1936 when the
Catholic Bloc split into the dutchophone
Catholic Flemish People's Party and francophone
Catholic Social Party. The PSC performed particularly badly in the
1999 general election. This was linked to several scandals, such as the escape of
Marc Dutroux
Marc Paul Alain Dutroux (; born 6 November 1956) is a Belgian convicted serial killer, serial rape, serial rapist, and child sexual abuse, child molester. Initially convicted for the child abduction, abduction and rape of five young girls in 19 ...
and the discovery of
dioxins in chickens (the PSC was a coalition partner in the
Dehaene government). The decline in votes was also explained by declining adherence to
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. The party was confined to
opposition on all levels of government.
The party started a process of internal reform. In 2001 a new charter of principles, the "Charter of Democratic Humanism," was adopted and in 2002 the party adopted a new constitution and a new name, Humanist Democratic Centre.
In the
2003 general election the party did not perform much better and was still confined to opposition. After the
2004 regional elections the party returned to power in Brussels, in Walloon Region and the French Community together with the
Socialist Party and
Ecolo in Brussels, and with the Socialist Party in Walloon Region and the French Community.
In the
2007 general elections, the party won 10 out of 150 seats in the
Chamber of Representatives and two out of 40 seats in the
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 ...
.
In the
2010 general elections, the party lost one seat in the Chamber and kept its two seats in the Senate, a result which was repeated in the
2014 general elections. In the
2019 general elections the party registered its worst ever performance, winning only 5 seats and 3.7% of the vote, as well as its worst performance in the Walloon and Brussels parliaments as part of the general trend of Belgians turning away from the traditional political parties.
Ideology
Its ideology was "democratic humanism, inspired by
personalism inherited notably from Christian humanism" which includes a centre-left policy towards the economy, supporting state interventionism and calling for the unity of Belgium, while also containing a centre-right faction on social issues and supporting tougher measures on crime. Presently, the party considers itself to be a movement rather than a party, and calls for citizen-led initiatives and more engagement between the public and politicians.
Presidents
CVP/PSC
*1945–1947
August De Schryver
*1949–1950
François-Xavier van der Straten-Waillet
*1950–1961
Théo Lefèvre
*1961–1966
Paul Vanden Boeynants
Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants (, ; 22 May 1919 – 9 January 2001) was a Belgian politician.
Rulers. Retrieved 30 August 201 ...
*1966–1972
Robert J. Houben
PSC
*1972–1976
Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb
*1976–1977
Georges Gramme
*1977–1979
Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb
*1979–1981
Paul Vanden Boeynants
Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants (, ; 22 May 1919 – 9 January 2001) was a Belgian politician.
Rulers. Retrieved 30 August 201 ...
*1981–1996
Gérard Deprez
*1996–1998
Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb
*1998–1999
Philippe Maystadt
*1999–2002
Joëlle Milquet
cdH
*2002–2011
Joëlle Milquet
*2011–2019
Benoît Lutgen
*2019–2022
Maxime Prévot
Until 1968 this lists gives the president of the Walloon part of the unitary CVP/PSC.
The party changed its name from PSC to cdH on 18 May 2002.
Electoral results
Chamber of Representatives
Results for the
Chamber of Representatives, in percentages for the Kingdom of Belgium.
ImageSize = width:650 height:210
PlotArea = height:150 left:100 bottom:50 right:100
AlignBars = justify
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:12
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
AlignBars = justify
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:0
PlotData=
bar:% color:orange width:22 mark:(line,white) align:center
bar:1971 from:start till:10.4 text:" 10.4"
bar:1974 from:start till:9.1 text:" 9.1"
bar:1977 from:start till:7.3 text:" 7.3"
bar:1978 from:start till:10.1 text:" 10.1"
bar:1981 from:start till:7.2 text:" 7.2"
bar:1985 from:start till:8.0 text:" 8.0"
bar:1987 from:start till:8.0 text:" 8.0"
bar:1991 from:start till:7.7 text:" 7.7"
bar:1995 from:start till:7.7 text:" 7.7"
bar:1999 from:start till:5.9 text:" 5.9"
bar:2003 from:start till:5.5 text:" 5.5"
bar:2007 from:start till:6.06 text:" 6.06"
bar:2010 from:start till:5.52 text:" 5.52"
bar:2014 from:start till:5.0 text:" 5.00"
bar:2019 from:start till:3.7 text:" 3.70"
Senate
Regional
Brussels Parliament
Walloon Parliament
European Parliament
Further reading
*
*
References
External links
*
Official WebsitecdH studentscdH page on the website of the European People's Party
{{DEFAULTSORT:Centre Democrate Humaniste
Francophone political parties in Belgium
Christian democratic parties in Belgium
Humanist Party
Political parties established in 1968
Political parties established in 1972
Political parties established in 2002
Political parties disestablished in 2022
1968 establishments in Belgium
1972 establishments in Belgium
2002 establishments in Belgium
2022 disestablishments in Belgium
Member parties of the European People's Party