Roman-Catholic State Party

Roman-Catholic Political Party () was a Dutch Catholic Christian-Democratic political party. The party was founded in 1926 as a continuation of the General League. In 1945 the party became the Catholic People's Party (KVP).

History

The RKSP was founded June 3, 1926, as the continuation of the Algemeene Bond van RK-kiesverenigingen (General League of Roman-Catholic Caucuses). Since 1918, the General League called itself RKSP informally. Instead of the loose league of caucuses, with little party discipline, as the General League was, the RKSP became a real party, with stronger party discipline and organisation.

In 1922 another Catholic party, RKVP, was founded by former members of the General League. It was oriented towards Catholic workers. The General League received little competition from this party, but accelerated the RKSP's process of party-formation.

During the 1920s and the 1930s, the RKSP was the biggest party in the Netherlands, receiving a steady 30% percent of the vote at each election. During this entire period the party was in government, in coalition with the Anti Revolutionary Party (ARP) and the Christian Historical Union (CHU), two Protestant parties. This coalition was called the Coalition.

The party was blocked from many political offices however, because of the historic discrimination against Catholics in the Netherlands. Positions like the vice-president of the council of state and the President of the Senate and House of Representatives of parliament...
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