After the Finnish independence in December 1917 and the Civil War of 1918, Russification was no longer an issue and the language question had lost a great deal of its importance in Finnish politics. The main issues holding the party together were now secondary to economic and constitutional issues. Although it had agreed to establishing a republican form of government before the war, the party leadership now switched to supporting constitutional monarchy. Party leaders saw in a monarchy a bulwark against socialism and thought that the election of a German prince as a monarch would guarantee Germany's military support, but the plan failed when the First World War ended in a German capitulation. In December 1918, the party's supporters divided into two new parties, a majority going to the conservative, monarchist National Coalition Party and a minority to the liberal, republican National Progressive Party.