United Communist Party Verenigde Communistische Partij | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Engel Modderman |
| Founded | 1999 (1999) |
| Split from | NCPN |
| Headquarters | Torenstraat 26, 9671 EEWinschoten |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism-Leninism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Colours | Red Yellow |
| Oldambt municipal council | 3 / 25 |
| Website | |
| http://vcpoldambt.nl/ | |
United Communist Party (Dutch:Verenigde Communistische Partij orVCP) is a smallcommunist party in theNetherlands, formed in 1999, and mainly based inOldambt andPekela. It is a break-away party from theNew Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN).
The VCP was created as a local split of the NCPN in north-east Groningen. The NCPN was created in 1992 by members of theCommunist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) who opposed the merger of the CPN with other leftwing parties to formGroenLinks in the late eighties. North-east Groningen is historically a bulwark of support for the CPN, and later the NCPN.
The main reason of the split lied in a disagreement surrounding a large construction project, consisting of mainly expensive villas, calledBlauwestad. The Scheemda chapter of the NCPN was opposed to the plan, while the Reiderland chapter was in favor. In Reiderland the NCPN was part of the governing coalition, whereas in Scheemda the party was part of the opposition. In 1999 this disagreement led to a definite split, with theScheemda chapter forming the VCP.[1]
In 2009, the municipalities ofScheemda andReiderland merged to form the new municipality ofOldambt. Both the NCPN and the VCP contested the elections in the new municipality, however only the VCP won representation.[2]
| Provincial elections[3] | 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| perc. | seats | votes | |
| Groningen | 0.5% | 0 | 1,238 |
| Municipal elections[4] | 2002 | 2006 | 2009 | 2014 | 2018 | 2022 | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| perc. | seats | votes | perc. | seats | votes | perc. | seats | votes | perc. | seats | votes | perc. | seats | votes | perc. | seats | votes | |
| Scheemda | 14.8% | 2 | 1,067 | 10.0% | 1 | 707 | Municipality merged intoOldambt | |||||||||||
| Oldambt | Municipality did not exist | 8.5% | 2 | 1,138 | 16.0% | 4 | 2,757 | 11.9% | 3 | 1,843 | 9.8% | 3 | 1,442 | |||||
| Pekela | 8.2% | 1 | 413 | |||||||||||||||
The VCP describes itself as a party based uponscientific socialism as developed byMarx,Engels andLenin. The party strives to eliminate, through democratic means, all elements ofcapitalism and its outgrowths, such asfascism,national socialism and all other forms of suppression and exploitation.[5] In its day to day political work inOldambt, the party focuses on transparency and the support of grassroots actions.