Dutch Peoples-Union

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The Dutch Peoples-Union (Dutch: Nederlandse Volks-Unie (NVU)) is a Dutch political party. Because of its many calls for the rehabilitation of convicted WWII war criminals and SS costumes worn at demonstrations, it is counted among the most extreme right of Dutch politics. The party strives for a great German empire as a European unity.

1 History
2 Criticism
3 Elections
4 References

[edit] History

The party was founded as a political party in 1971 by Joop Glimmerveen. During the 1970s the party was virulently racist and became increasingly militant as younger neo-Nazis joined its ranks. Following attempts to ban the NVU in the Dutch courts during 1980, some members formed the Centrumpartij, the forerunner of CD and NVP/ CP'86. In the seventies it was the only party with downright racist ideals ("The Hague must become white and safe!"). But when Glimmerveen revealed his sympathy for Adolf Hitler and Anton Mussert and the NVU became more and more an NS-party, support for the party collapsed and in the end it was forbidden. Due to a mistake in the law, the NVU managed to continue after it was forbidden. But in the mid-eighties it collapsed completely. In 1996 a few young neo-Nazis asked Joop Glimmerveen, then 68 years of age, to start the NVU again and he did. In 1998 they tried to enter the town councils in Den Haag and Arnhem, but didn't succeed. At this moment the NVU is a very small party (some dozens of members) and gets support from the ‘Aktiefront Nationale Socialisten (ANS)’, a small organization of activists who support the Islam by trying to connect with Islamic fundamentalists and take part in their demonstrations.

[edit] Criticism

One of the biggest critics of current NVU's leader Constant Kusters is Joop Glimmerveen, the face and leader of the NVU since the beginning of the 1970s and party ideologist until the end of the 1990s. Glimmerveen is bitterly regretting his decision, in 1996 after almost 11 years of inactivity, to hand the NVU over to Kusters and Eite Homan because he is witnessing his legacy being sacrificed at the altar of Kusters' ambition. Glimmerveen actually gave up NVU membership in 1994 but kept control of the editorial rights of the party magazine Wij Nederland. Kusters writes and edits the party newspaper Wij Europa but Glimmerveen cannot stand either its ideological course or its 'shoddy production'.

In 2003, Glimmerveen published a special edition of Wij Nederland full of letters to Kusters, the latter's answers, and his own vision of the NVU. Among other things, Glimmerveen has charged Kusters with misuse of NVU funds for his own benefit and threatens him with court action.