ROOMSKATHOLIEKE STAATS PARTIJ

During the second half of the 19th century, religiouspolitical partiesemerged in opposition to the lib erals and the conservatives: the orthodox Protestants were united by Abraham Kuyper in the Antirevolutionaire Partij (ARP) about 1870. Not until 1894 did Father Hermanus Schaepman, a member of Parliament, succeed in uniting the Roman Catholic politicians on a political program inspired by the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum. In 1926, the RKSP emerged, uniting the national association of Catholic constituencies and the Rooms-Katholieke Volkspartij (RKVP, Roman Catholic People’s Party), founded in 1922. In 1945, after World WarII, the RKSPwas reconstituted into the Katholieke Volkspartij (KVP, Catholic People’s Party), which in 1973 merged with the Protestant parties into the Christen De mocratisch Appel (CDA, Christian Democratic Appeal).