Hanoverian Union Party
Hanoverian Union Party Hannoveraner Unionspartei | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | HUP |
| Leader | Anna-Lena Ungerer |
| Deputy Leader | Denis Brahm |
| President | Jannick Guttmacher |
| Chief Executive | Klara Walker |
| Commons Leader | Corinna Bernauer |
| Lords Leader | The Lady Aberbach |
| Founder | Anton Weintraub |
| Founded | 5 December 1924 |
| Preceded by | Democratic Movement for Hanover |
| Headquarters | Hanover, Hanover |
| Youth wing | Young Hanoverians |
| LGBT wing | Out Hanoverians |
| Membership (2023) | 212,659 |
| Ideology | British unionism Regionalism Pro-Europeanism Classical liberalism Economic liberalism Social liberalism |
| Political position | Centre |
| European affiliation | European People's Party |
| International affiliation | International Democracy Union |
| European Parliament group | European People's Party |
| Colors | Yellow Black |
| Slogan | Der Fortschritt eines Jahrhunderts (A Century's Progress) |
| House of Commons (Hanoverian seats) | 69 / 73
|
| House of Lords | 47 / 600
|
| Hanoverian Parliament | 136 / 146
|
| European Parliament | 9 / 93
|
The Hanoverian Union Party (German: Hannoveraner Unionspartei), abbreviated as HUP, is a unionist, centrist political party in Hanover. Described as a catch-all party with its ideology being a mix of center-left and center-right thoughts, the HUP generally stands for a continuation of the union between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom while also retaining some levels of autonomy. It is the largest and the single most dominant party in Hanover, with a consistently large amount of seats in the Hanoverian Parliament, along with 87 out of 94 of the Hanoverian seats in the House of Commons.
Founded in 1924 shortly after the passage of the Kingdom of Hanover Act 1924, it has since maintained an unbroken parliamentary representation in the House of Commons while also consistently being the largest and single most dominant party in the Hanoverian Parliament. Since gaining power at the 1924 Hanoverian Parliament election, the party has remained on the government side in the subsequent elections and has otherwise never served as the opposition since its inception. Historically, at the 1994 election, the party recorded its lowest share of seats in history with only 100 out of 146 seats, while its largest share of seats in history was recorded at the inaugural 1924 election in which the party gained a total amount of 142 out of 146 seats contested. As of 2023, the HUP has consistently been in power for roughly 99 years, making it the longest, uninterrupted ruling party among multiparty parliamentary democracies in the world. On precisely 5 December 2024, the party is set to commemorate its 100th anniversary of uninterrupted rule over Hanover, the longest in a democratic country.
In overall terms, the HUP is the largest party in Hanover in terms of seats in both the British and Hanoverian parliaments as well as in terms of membership, commanding a total amount of 212,659 members as of March 2023. As of current, the HUP has 69 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons, 47 members of the House of Lords, 136 Members of the Hanoverian Parliament (MHPs), and 9 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It is also a member of both the International Democracy Union and the European People's Party, the latter of which they are the second-largest party member behind Germany's CDU.
During the reign of King Frederick, the HUP was popularly referred to by many as "the King's Party" due to the party's strong association and connection with the British monarch who despite his connections with the party was never an official member himself as per the tradition of a British monarch remaining impartial and above partisan politics. Despite this, prior to the onset of the Second World War, the HUP largely adopted a considerably strong right-wing stance on most issues before the war itself and its aftermath influenced the party's shift to the center during which it came to support the establishment of a welfare state and other left-wing policies while also retaining their traditional right-wing ones to some extent, a formula which the party has since stuck with. In the context of British politics, it has often been considered to be a mix of both the Scottish National Party's regionalism and the Liberal Democrats' liberalism. Furthermore, unlike the similarly regionalist Scottish National Party, the HUP has members in the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament, and supports a continuation of the union, albeit with certain levels of devolution, rather than its dissolution.
Given the often multipolar nature of politics in mainland Britain, the HUP, due to its consistent ability to secure an impressively large majority of seats each time in the House of Commons allocated towards Hanover, has often served as the kingmaker in national politics whereby a major party that only managed to secure a plurality of seats would therefore normally enter into an electoral pact with the HUP to guarantee the formation of a government. Consequently, such a situation effectively allows the HUP to either stabilise or destabilise a government led by either the Conservative or Labour parties while advancing its own interests if necessary. Thus, the HUP has had somewhat of a negative reputation among both left-wing and right-wing politicians who criticised the party's unprecedented influence and power as a third party, while centrist-leaning politicians conversely see the party as a "guardian of centrist politics", a view first espoused and popularised by the late Edward Heath who attributed the HUP as one of the major factors contributing to his twenty-year-long tenure as prime minister, the longest ever in British history. Since its foundation, the HUP has achieved some major success, namely the reform of the House of Lords through the Tilgner Report and the disestablishment of the Church of England, a feat achieved in conjunction with the Labour Party's Tony Blair via the Church of England Act 1998.
In a tradition unique to the HUP itself, both the party's leader and deputy leader are traditionally expected to resign from their respective positions after approximately fifteen years in power. Such a tradition was established by the party's founding leader Anton Weintraub under the guise of "ensuring an ever-evolving and progressive leadership that could effectively guide the party through the constantly changing times", a principle that has since been enshrined as the "Weintraub Rule".