ABSTRACT
Right-wing extremist phenomena have been a feature of politics in the Netherlands going to the Nationaal Socialistische Beweging (NSB) in the 1930s. Post-war, the 1960s saw the emergence of the Boerenpartij (BP) but, by the 1970s, the increased settlement in the country of immigrants from former Dutch colonies and from countries such as Turkey and Morocco stimulated electoral support that was given, first in the 1970s, to the Nederlandse Volksunie (NVU) and, then in the 1980s and early 1990s, to the Centrumpartij (CP) and, after the latter experienced an internal split, to the Centrumpartij ’86 (CP ’86) and the Centrumdemocraten (CDs). Given the country’s use of an extreme form of proportional representation, the latter achieved small representation in the Dutch Second Chamber, but these parties’ particular local successes, especially for the CDs, were in the countries’ major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague. Intra-city correlations using local subareas and a number of relevant social variables were constructed for these three cities and, especially in Rotterdam and The Hague, there are very strong positive correlations with the percentages of locally resident foreigners and with those of Turkish and Moroccan origin. Despite these outcomes, this type of party has not been as successful in the Netherlands as in some other countries and the overall effect upon Dutch politics has been correspondingly moderate, albeit not without any effect.
