The Christian Union ( , 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). It took until 1963 for the party to enter parliament. In the 1981 election, the Reformatory Political Federation (RPF) entered parliament. It had split off from the ARP six years earlier over the formation of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).
The RPF explicitly stated in its manifesto of principles that it sought to unite all reformed parties in the Netherlands.
Some of CU's socially conservative policies include:
- Facilitation by government of a one-earner model, allowing one parent, usually the wife, to stay at home and take care of the children.
- Society should cherish its collective moments of rest, and preferably leave Sunday a day of rest.
- Abortion and euthanasia-practices should be reduced and eventually replaced by alternatives, such as care of women with unwanted pregnancies and palliative care.
- The Dutch policy of toleration of soft drugs should be abandoned.
- Combatting prostitution.
- Defending the freedom of education (that is, to found religious schools), because of sphere sovereignty.
- The Netherlands should remain an independent political entity within the European Union.
- Limiting the use of genetic manipulation.
More centre-left policies include:
- Public services of education, health care and social security should remain state run, but on a smaller scale than is presently the case.
- Increased budgets for development cooperation in order to address the poverty in the global south.
- A more open policy towards asylum seekers, especially those who are persecuted for religious reasons.
- A green environmental policy. Based on its electoral promises on investment in green energy, the Dutch branch of Greenpeace termed CU the greenest political party in 2006.
Social issues
The CU describes itself as Christelijk-sociaal ('social Christian') and explicitly distance themselves from the labels Christian socialism or Christian right.
In May 2019, the Christian Union voted against banning gay conversion therapy. In 2025, however, the CU said they would vote for banning conversion therapy in the future, if certain judicial problems were removed from the proposed law.
On immigration, the CU supports a work permit scheme for immigrants with integration requirements such as learning Dutch to prevent what the party calls a "parallel society". It calls for a humane asylum policy, especially for those fleeing religious persecution and for the creation of asylum centres outside of Europe to combat human trafficking. It seeks a faster processing measure for asylum seekers.
Foreign policy
The CU supports Dutch membership of the European Union while simultaneously being critical of several EU policies which it claims are undemocratic and "mainly benefits large companies and the upper middle classes". The CU instead calls for more transparency within the EU, for domestic decision making of EU member states to be complied with and wants reforms made to the Eurozone. The CU is also against the accession of Turkey to the European Union.
In the Middle East, the CU platform expresses support for Israel and its right to exist on the basis that "Christians feel a biblical connection to the Jewish people" and supports moving the Dutch embassy to Jerusalem while stating that civilians on both sides should be protected, with the party highlighting Palestinian Christians as a concern. The party condemned the 2023 October 7 attacks and maintained Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism while appealing to both sides to respect international law and for the allowance of humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians. The CU says it supports recognition of a Palestinian state with an economic recovery and investment plan for Gaza on the conditions of the release of Israeli hostages and the dismantling of Hamas with no extremist organizations playing a role in Palestinian governance.
The party supports international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Election results
House of Representatives
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
! Election
! Lead candidate
! List
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! Government
|-
! 2002
| align="left"| Kars Veling
| List
| 240,953
| 2.54
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2003
| rowspan=3 align="left"|André Rouvoet
| List
| 204,649
| 2.12
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2006
| List
| 390,969
| 3.97
|
| 3
|
|-
! 2010
| List
| 305,094
| 3.24
|
| 1
|
|-
! 2012
| align="left"| Arie Slob
| List
| 294,586
| 3.13
|
|
|
|-
! 2017
| rowspan=2 align="left" |Gert-Jan Segers
| List
| 356,271
| 3.39
|
|
|
|-
! 2021
| List
| 350,523
| 3.37
|
|
|
|-
! 2023
| align="left" rowspan="2" | Mirjam Bikker
| List
| 212,532
| 2.04
|
| 2
|
|-
! 2025
| List
| 201,361
| 1.90
|
|
|
|-
|}
Senate
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
! Election
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
|-
! 1999
|
|
|
| 2
|-
! 2003
|
|
|
| 2
|-
! 2007
|
|
|
| 2
|-
! 2011
|
|
|
| 2
|-
! 2015
| 32
|
|
| 1
|-
! 2019
| 33
| 5.03
|
| 1
|-
! 2023
| 23
| 3.73
|
| 1
|}
European Parliament
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Election
! List
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! EP Group
|-
! 2004
| List
| 279,880
| 5.87
| style="text-align: right;" |
| New
| IND/DEM
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2009
| rowspan="2" | List
| rowspan="2" | 310,540
| rowspan="2" | 6.82
| style="text-align: right;" |
| 0
| rowspan="3" |ECR
|-
| style="text-align: right;" |
| 0
|-
! 2014
| List
| 364,843
| 7.67
| style="text-align: right;" |
| 0
|-
! rowspan="2" | 2019
| rowspan="2" | List
| rowspan="2" | 375,660
| rowspan="2" | 6.83
| style="text-align: right;" |
| 0
| rowspan="2" |EPP
|-
| style="text-align: right;" |
| 0
|-
! 2024
| List
| 180,060
| 2.89
| style="text-align: right;" |
| 1
| –
|}