National Patriotic Union (Belhavia)
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
National Patriotic Union Party | |
|---|---|
| Founder | Eliezer Itzchak |
| Founded | September 19, 1945 |
| Dissolved | March 6, 1969 |
| Preceded by | Far Right faction of the 1945 Provisa Convention (directly) Fascist Party (indirectly) Federalist Party (indirectly) National Front (indirectly) |
| Headquarters | Provisa (formerly) |
| Student wing | Patriotic Youth Club (defunct) |
| Ideology | National conservatism Traditionalist conservatism Right-wing populism Anti-communism Jewish right Internal Factions: Radical right Reactionaryism |
| Political position | Far right |
| Religion | Haredi Judaism |
| Colors | Royal Blue White |
The National Patriotic Union, also commonly called the Nationals or the Reactionaries (colloquially), is a currently defunct and relatively short-lived contemporary far right and ultranationalist political party in Belhavia in the early post-Galarian period, being active from late 1945 until early 1969, when it was disbanded and criminalized following its key role in the Ben-David Incident.
At the time of its existence, it overlapped two Party Systems - the very late end of Third Party System (1858 - 1955) and the current Fourth Party System (1955 - present). It was opposed on the right by the Federalist Party (until 1955) and then the Conservative Party (1955 onward), opposed on the center-left by the Liberal Democratic Party and the similarly-short-lived United Left party on the far left.
History
In late 1945, the party was created by prominent members of the Far Right faction of the 1945 Provisa Convention, who themselves were made up of low-key members of the Fascist Party, the disillusioned extreme right-wing of the Federalist Party, and some elements of the outlawed Galarianist political platform, the National Front. The party field 54 candidates for the Provisional Assembly out of 70 possible seats. The party fared best in traditionalist rural Belhavia and in small towns and cities where voters retained crypto-Galarianist and reactionary political views.
In the November 1945 elections, the NPU gained its largest share of seats in the Provisional Assembly, and later its successor body, the Imperial Senate, winning 10 seats. It captured the both Senate seats in three provinces, and split 4 other province senatorial delegations with Federalist senators. It reached its political heyday during the 80th and 87th sessions of Senate, when it joined the Federalists, and later their successors the Conservatives, to form governing coalition majorities.
After its initial election, the party steadily lost seats in subsequent elections, and by the early 1950s and until its dissolution, controlled between just 2-4 seats in the Senate. They often voted and worked in tandem with the Federalists/Conservatives, but sometimes defected to vote unorthodoxly with Lib Dem and United Left senators on economic nationalist bills and other legislation favoring protection of domestic conservative-leaning industries and other government-centric fiscal legislation that conflicted with the Federalists'/Tories' pro-business and pro-free market stances.
Legacy
The NPU was the Belhavian far right's last grasp in post-Galarian politics. Its failed coup de'etat in 1969 was the last attempted change of government by military force in Belhavian history, and is considered by many historians as the final nail in the coffin of the ideology of Galarianism.
The far- and radical right in Belhavia was immeasurably impaired by the public fallout of the failed coup, and faded from view as a mainstream political force. Those elements that sympathized with its worldview and policies but remained untainted by coup either left politics or quietly joined the right-wing of the Tories. The party's brazen coup attempt sparked a societal-wide reconsideration of the Galarian years, which had been seared from collective memory after its topple, pushing the stature and opinion of Zachary Galarian and his regime into further disrepute.