New Social Contract

New Social Contract (Nieuw Sociaal Contract, ; NSC) is a political party in the Netherlands founded and led by Pieter Omtzigt. The party focuses on the themes of good governance and social security.

History
In early 2021, Omtzigt wrote the manifesto A New Social Contract, with ideas for the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), the party for which he served in the House of Representatives at the time. After a falling out with his party over the appointment of Wopke Hoekstra as party leader and the "Position Omtzigt, function elsewhere" note that leaked during the 2021–2022 cabinet formation, he split from the CDA in June 2021 and continued as a one-man faction in September of that year.

After the 2023 Dutch general election was announced following the fall of the fourth Rutte cabinet, Omtzigt founded New Social Contract (NSC) on 19 August 2023. His 2021 manifesto has served as the basis for the views of the new party. On 20 August 2023, Omtzigt announced in Tubantia newspaper that he did not strive for NSC to become the largest party in the general election in November that year. If that does happen, he did not want to become prime minister, but to remain in the House of Representatives as parliamentary leader. After the party's candidate list was presented, Omtzigt no longer ruled out premiership.

CDA prominent Eddy van Hijum became chairman of the committee that would write the party's manifesto ahead of the 2023 general election. Former VVD hopeful Onno Aerden was introduced as the party's spokesperson on 12 September 2023, but he stepped down a few hours later when a tweet resurfaced in which he had referred to the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) as "a tumor that destroys the fragile democracy from within". On 2 October, NSC announced the resignation of its co-founder and inaugural chairman Hein Pieper, after the revelation of a past allegation of abuse of power. Until 28 August 2023, the party offered people who endorsed the party's principles the opportunity to apply online for a seat in the House of Representatives. It was later announced that around 2,400 candidates had registered. NSC presented a list of 44 candidates on 26 September 2023. It includes several former members of parliament, such as Nicolien van Vroonhoven-Kok, Eddy van Hijum, Wytske Postma, and Folkert Idsinga, as well as people without political experience, including a judge, a pensions expert, a public prosecutor, a former ambassador, a microbiologist/columnist, a director of a housing corporation, civil servants, and businesspeople.

NSC won twenty seats in the 22 November general election, entering the House as the fourth largest party, while the right-wing populist Party for Freedom (PVV) received a plurality. Omtzigt had told during the campaign that NSC would be unwilling to form a coalition government with the PVV and FVD, as he felt they did not meet the "basic conditions of the rule of law". Following government formation talks with the PVV, VVD, and BBB, Omtzigt left open the possibility for an extraparliamentary cabinet. The four parties struck a coalition agreement in May 2024 after Omtzigt had once stepped out of the talks due to concerns about government finances.

Ideology and positions
NSC has been described as centre to centre-right, anti-establishment,  Christian democratic  and close to communitarian philosophy. Article 2 of the party's statutes speak of "personal responsibility, family and communities and distributed private property" as founding principles, while an accompanying programme of principles mentions notions including personalism, virtue ethics and the social market economy. The party is also critical of neoliberalism and believes that neoliberal tendencies in Dutch economy should be reined in.

Good governance and social security are the party's primary concerns. Policies regarding good governance include the establishment of a constitutional court and instituting a regional electoral system similar to that of Sweden. With regard to social security, the party proposes revising the living wage to aid people living on low incomes.

While the NSC has been compared to the centre-left GroenLinks–PvdA alliance in terms of social issues, the party has a more conservative attitute towards immigration. Omtzigt proposed a two-status system that would apply different admission criteria to asylum seekers and economic migrants. He also stated that the current figure of the Netherlands accepting more than 100,000 immigrants per year is too high, and the party aims to limit net migration to no more than 50,000 per year. On its platform, NSC supports reforms to asylum laws such as limiting the duration asylum seekers can be in the Netherlands and faster deportation of rejected asylum cases. The party also supports limits and stricter quotas for the number of foreign students in the Netherlands and wants Dutch to be reinstated as the standard language of the university system, with exceptions for certain postgraduate degrees.

In foreign policy, NSC aspires to continue intensive cooperation within Europe. The idea is that by working together, the Netherlands gets a better grip on cross-border problems such as migration, CO2 emissions and the power of big tech. Nevertheless, NSC also sees the need to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of European legislation and calls for the European Union to be more transparent and accountable to European citizens. According to its party manifesto, European decision-making must become more transparent and be more focused on upholding the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Ultimately, Omtzigt has vowed for a firm stance from the Netherlands in Europe, without creeping transfers of budgets and powers eroding national sovereignty and democratic control, and argues that the Netherlands should protect its interests on the European stage. The party also calls for no more Dutch participation in Eurozone bailouts, less EU influence on Dutch taxation policies and for the Netherlands to opt-out of EU agreements it deems contradictory to Dutch interests. NSC supports Dutch NATO membership and argues for the Netherlands to meet the standard of at least 2% of GDP on defense.

Electorate
According to market researcher I&O Research, NSC attracts voters from parties across the political spectrum, including the Socialist Party, JA21, BBB, and PVV. Polls in late August 2023 showed that it was the most popular party, with 40% of its electorate coming from BBB, reducing that party's vote share by more than a third.

Party leader

 * Pieter Omtzigt (since 19 August 2023)

Party chair

 * Hein Pieper (24 August 2023 – 2 October 2023)
 * Bert van Boggelen (acting, since 2 October 2023)