Catholics/Christian Democrats
After World War II, the Catholic (now Christian Democratic) Party severed its formal ties with the Church. It became a mass party of the centre.
In 1968, the Christian Democratic Party, responding to linguistic tensions in the country, divided into two independent parties: the Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) in French-speaking Belgium and the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) in Flanders. The two parties pursue the same basic policies but maintain separate organisations. The CVP is the larger of the two, getting more than twice as many votes as the PSC. The chairman of the Flemish Catholic party is now Wouter Beke. MP and Brussels Alderman Joëlle Milquet is president of the Francophone Catholic party. Following the 1999 general elections, the CVP and PSC were ousted from office, bringing an end to a 40-year term on the government benches. In 2001, the CVP changed its name to Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V). In 2002, the PSC also changed its name to Centre démocrate humaniste (cdH).
After the big losses in the 1999 general elections, when both CVP and PSC were banished to the opposition benches, some party members decided to leave the mother parties in order to form a new liberal-conservative party. In Flanders, the New Christian Democrats (NCD) was founded by Johan Van Hecke and Karel Pinxten. In Wallonia, the Citizens' Movement for Change (MCC) was founded by Gérard Deprez. Both parties soon joined the major liberal parties, respectively the VLD in Flanders and the MR in Wallonia.
Read more about this topic: Political Parties In Belgium
Famous quotes containing the words catholics, christian and/or democrats:
“When over Catholics the ocean rolls,
They must wait several weeks before a mass
Takes off one peck of purgatorial coals,
Because, till people know what’s come to pass,
They won’t lay out their money on the dead—
It costs three francs for every mass that’s said.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)