Besmenian Republican Party

Besmenian Republican Party Besmenische Republikanische Partei
Last logo used from 1987 to 1990
Abbreviation	BRP
Founded	4 May 1957
Dissolved	28 May 1990
Split from	BKP
Succeeded by	NBP
Ideology	Besmenian nationalism National conservatism Social conservatism Right-wing populism Anti-immigration Soft-Ochsenbeinism (faction, 1967-1984)
Political position	Right-wing to far-right
Colors	Orange

The Besmenian Republican Party (Besmenian: Besmenische Republikanische Partei, BRP) was a right-wing and national-conservative political party in Besmenia, which existed from 1957 to 1990.

Starting as a breakaway party of the Besmenian Conservative Party in 1957, the BRP has been represented in all state parliaments since its foundation. The party was permanently represented in the Federal Chamber from 1960 to 1989. Support for the party was at its highest in the 1960s and 1970s, with its share of the votes reaching around more then 10% in some parliamentary elections and the involvement as junior coalition partner of the Besmenian People's Party in the first and second government of Robert Gleitzmann from 1972 to 1980. The BRP's stronghold was Greuningia, where the party achieved its best result in a party election with 23.5% in the 1975 state election. Due to financial, intra-party conflicts and the Huthmacher affair in 1978, the support of the BRP plummeted significantly in the 1980s. The party lost importance in the late 1980s at the latest when it failed to regain seats in some state parliaments, and especially in the 1989 federal election, where the BRP failed to regain seats in the Federal Chamber for the first time with 4.8%. The BRP was dissolved in May 1990 and succeeded by the National Besmenian Party as part of a reorganization under its last chairman Alexander von Wiest.

The BRP represented right-wing conservative, right-wing populist and right-wing extremist views. After reunification, the BRP has become a melting pot for former BNU supporters, which has led to the existence of a Ochsenbeinist faction within the party which left the party in 1984 and founded the Besmenian Ochsenbein Party.

History

Background

The BRP was formed in 1957 when the right-wing party wing split from the Besmenian Conservative Party. The background was an internal party struggle between politicians from the centre-right and the right-wing wing of the BKP. After the centre-right politician Jakob Richtig was elected the new party chairman at the BKP party conference in March 1957, politicians from the right-wing wing left the party. The Besmenian Republican Party was founded on May 4, 1957 during a closed meeting of about 100 members, many of whom were former BKP members, in Sankt Butz.

1957-1972

BRP election poster from the 1967 Greuningian state election

Chairmans of the BRP

Leader		Year
1	Reinhard Heide	1957–1970
2	Konrad Berger	1970–1982
3	Friedrich Nägele	1982–1985
4	Helmut Schwarzberg	1985–1989
5	Alexander von Wiest	1989–1990

Political position

The BRP was a party at the right-wing populist end of the political spectrum. The BRP was primarily against communism as well as socialism and direct democracy and was committed to cooperation with the fascist West Besmenia before the Besmenian reunification. With the entry of numerous former BNU politicians, there was a slight emergence of Ochsenbeinism as a political strand of the party in the late 1960s.

Election results

Federal Chamber

Election	Prime Minister Candidate	Votes in %	Seats	Government
1960	Reinhard Heide	12,9% (#4)	29 / 211	Opposition
1964	Reinhard Heide	12,0% (#4)	26 / 211	Opposition
1968	Reinhard Heide	8,4% (#4)	37 / 427	Opposition
1972	Konrad Berger	10,3% (#4)	45 / 427	BVP-BRP majority
1976	Konrad Berger	10,8% (#4)	50 / 427	BVP-BRP majority
1980	Konrad Berger	10,3% (#4)	47 / 427	Opposition
1981	Konrad Berger	9,8% (#4)	45 / 427	Opposition
1985	Helmut Schwarzberg	8,3% (#4)	37 / 427	Opposition
1989	Helmut Schwarzberg	4,8% (#5)	0 / 427	No seats