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Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond - Definition and Overview |
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This article is part of or related
to the Liberalism series
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The Free-minded Democratic League (VDB, Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond) was a progressive liberal party in the Netherlands between 1901 and 1946. It was founded by a merger of dissidents from the Liberale Unie (Liberal Union) with the Radicale Bond. The party didn't name itself liberaal (liberal), since that would mean identification with conservative liberalism, but preferred the word vrijzinnig, meaning free-minded or freethinking (and thus also liberal).
After the German occupation the leadership of the party brought the party into a merger with social democrats as the Partij van de Arbeid. The leader of the VDB, P.J. Oud, left the PvdA in 1948 to join the Partij voor de Vrijheid into the new Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, of which he became the leader.
Eighteen years later, progressive liberals founded Democraten 66, which sometimes styles itself as the continuation of the VDB.
See also
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