Dutch National Party

The Dutch National Party are the dominant party in Brabant advocating the secession of Brabant. The party has historically been divided on it's social, economic and post-secessionist policy, with the current leadership of Kyrsten Sinema in favour of centre-left economics, a liberal attitude towards society and taking a post-secessionist policy of joining the Netherlands, as opposed to becoming an independent nation-state. The Party has historically flared up and down in support, generally as the region of Brabant has been in favour or against the government in charge.

The Dutch National Party was formed in 1934 under the name "The Orange Vanguard", with its founder being Flip Schut, however it wasn't until the 1980s where the Dutch National Party started to do well in elections, with it's best showing being in the 2015 Election, where the Dutch National Party won 8 out of the 14 seats in Brabant.

## The Early Orange Vanguard: 1934 - 1973

The Orange Vanguard as it was then called was formed in 1934, with a merger of several smaller ragtag Dutch National parties, which had all been different on social and economic policy, with some, mainly in Nieuw Brabant, being Socially Conservative and Free Market Capitalist, whereas some where more progressive and socially democratic - this has been identified by political analysts as the start of a problem which the Orange Vanguard, now the Dutch National Party has found itself in - different factions, between the centre left and centre right.

The Orange Vanguard saw very limited success in its early years, getting at max one seat in the 1957 Parliamentary Election (which was won narrowly) thanks to the incompetence of a centre right government at the time, and only saw a number of councillors over the years. But across the seas in Britain, events had been set in motion which had changed the Orange Vanguard's fortunes.

## Rise of Dutch Nationalism, the First Peak and Decline: 1973 - 2015

In the North of Ireland, insurgency had grown massively, with groups like the Irish Republican Army (IRA) being known world wide for their guerilla-like techniques. This, as well as Basque Nationalism, had the unintended consequence of causing Dutch Nationalism to rise in Brabant. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Orange Vanguard had at least one seat every national election, and had returned several Members of the European Parliament in the 1980s, and had improved its local showing significantly.

The peak of the Orange Vanguard at this time was in the 1985 Parliamentary Election, where they returned two Members of Parliament, a record it would hold until the 2015 Parliamentary Election.

However, the party suffered a decline after a string of unpopular and incompetent leaders, and in the very next election, the 1988 snap election, the Orange Vanguard lost all its seats and would not return a single MP for a decade.

The Orange Vanguard would never recover from the 1988 Election, at least in that form of the party. In 1999, the Orange Vanguard was officially renamed to the Dutch National Party, and in the same year, returned a Member of Parliament.

The party had modernised, and had seemed to start to resonate once more. This would pave the way for a very successful 2015 election.