The Progressive Surinamese People's Party ( nl, Progressieve Surinaamse Volkspartij, PSV) was 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 political ideology ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

. The party was a member of the Christian Democrat Organization of America. The party was founded in August 1946 by, among others, Father

Jozef Weidmann Leonardus Josephus "Jozef" Weidmann (3 October 1899 – 15 September 1962) was a Dutch-Surinamese Catholic priest, politician and union leader. He is one of the founders of the Progressive Surinamese People's Party (PSV). Weidmann played a lead ...

and Coen Ooft. In 1948, party member , on behalf of the PSV, went to the First Round Table Conference in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, where he pleaded for

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...

for men and women. One of the results of this conference was that the census and capacity selection right for men was replaced by a universal suffrage for men and women. In 1955 three PSV politicians were elected and soon after that two members of the PSV became minister:

Willem Smit Willem Smit (born 1 August 1974) is a South African cricketer. He played in 25 first-class and 51 List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. Li ...

(Finance) and Lucien Rens (Education and Community Development). Rens was in 1957 succeeded by Julius Johan Jacques Volkerts. After the elections of 1969 the PSV politician Rudi Vonsée became the Minister of Health. At the 1973 elections, the PSV belonged to the coalition ''National Party Combination'' (NPK), led by Henck Arron, who obtained 22 of the 39 seats. The PSV received two ministerial posts in the Arron cabinet. In 1977, the NPK once again won 22 of the 39 seats in a slightly changed composition, with another two PSV ministers in the cabinet. As a result of the military coup in 1980 led by sergeant

Dési Bouterse Desiré Delano "Dési" Bouterse (; born 13 October 1945) is a Surinamese military officer, politician, convicted murderer and drug trafficker who served as President of Suriname from 2010 to 2020. From 1980 to 1987, he was Suriname's ''de facto ...

, this government came to an end prematurely. After the restoration of democracy, the PSV no longer played a major role in Surinamese politics.

References

Defunct political parties in Suriname {{Suriname-party-stub