Christian Union (Netherlands)
political party in the Netherlands
The Christian Union (Dutch: ChristenUnie [ˌkrɪstənˈyni, -təˈʔy-], CU) is a Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CU is a centrist party, maintaining more progressive stances on economic, immigration and environmental issues while holding more socially conservative positions on issues, such as opposing abortion and euthanasia. The party describes itself as "social Christian".
The CU was founded in 2000 as a merger of the Reformed Political League (GPV) and Reformatory Political Federation (RPF). After doubling its seat tally in the 2006 Dutch general election, it became the smallest member of the fourth Balkenende cabinet, and since that time has been likewise part of the third Rutte cabinet and the fourth Rutte cabinet. In some elections it forms an alliance with the Calvinist Reformed Political Party (SGP), which, unlike the CU, is a testimonial party.
Primarily a Protestant party, the CU bases its policies on the Bible, and takes the theological principles of charity and stewardship as bases for its support for public expenditure and environmentalism. It seeks for government to uphold Christian morality, but supports freedom of religion under the doctrine of sphere sovereignty. The party is moderately Eurosceptic; it was formerly in the European Parliament with the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR Group) and European People's Party Group (EPP Group). It is a member of the European Christian Political Party.
“Christian Union (Netherlands)” enters the record as political party in the Netherlands. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Christian, Union and Netherlands can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q239539. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000 and 2006.
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