Christian Democratic Appeal
political party in the Netherlands
The Christian Democratic Appeal (Dutch: Christen-Democratisch Appèl [ˌkrɪstə(n)deːmoːˈkraːtis ɑˈpɛl], CDA) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in the Netherlands.
Formed as a federation in 1975 by the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolutionary Party, and the Christian Historical Union, it first participated in a general election in 1977 and unified into a single party in 1980. The party dominated Dutch politics from 1977 to 1994, becoming the largest party all but twice, with leaders Dries van Agt and Ruud Lubbers serving as prime minister.
The party faced a major defeat in the 1994 general election, after which the first two cabinets without its participation were formed. The CDA regained its status as the largest party between 2002 and 2010, during which leader Jan Peter Balkenende headed four cabinets. Between 2010 and 2023, the party saw further electoral decline under varied leadership, participating in three of four cabinets as a junior coalition partner. Following the 2025 general election, the party holds 18 seats, now led by Henri Bontenbal.
History
Founding
Predecessor parties
Since 1880, Catholics and the Protestant Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) collaborated in the so-called Coalition. They shared a common goal of securing public funding for religious schools, which was achieved through the Pacification of 1917. In 1888, they established the first Christian democratic cabinet, the Mackay cabinet.
The public source identifies “Christian Democratic Appeal” as political party in the Netherlands. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Christian, Democratic and Appeal.
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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 Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q273749. VIAF identifies the subject as 152417981. The Library of Congress control number is n50080357. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Christian Democratic Appeal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.