- Progressive Federal Party
The Progressive Federal Party (PFP) was a
South Africa npolitical party formed in1977 . It advocated power-sharing in South Africa through a federalconstitution , in place ofapartheid . Its leader wasColin Eglin , who was later succeeded byFrederik van Zyl Slabbert and thenZach de Beer , but its best known parliamentarian wasHelen Suzman , who was for many years the only member of the whites-only parliament to speak out against theapartheid regime's abuses.It was formed in 1977 when a group of
United Party members left the Party to form the Committee for a United Opposition, which then joined theProgressive Reform Party to form the Progressive Federal Party.It drew support mainly from liberal English-speaking whites, as owing to South Africa's apartheid laws, its membership was limited to the country's whites. The PFP was derided by right-wing whites, who claimed its initials stood for 'Packing for Perth', on account of the many white liberal supporters of the 'Progs', who were emigrating to
Australia .Another well known parliamentarian was
Harry Schwarz who had previously led the Reform Party. He was the chairman of the Federal Executive, finance spokesman and defence spokesman.It was ousted as the official opposition by the far-right Conservative Party in the whites-only parliamentary elections held on
May 6 1987 .This electoral blow led many of the PFP's leaders to question the value of participating in the whites-only parliament, and some of its MPs left to form the New Democratic Movement (NDM).
In 1989, the PFP and NDM merged with another small white reformist party, the Independent Party (IP), to form the Democratic Party (DP).
ee also
*
Federalism
*Liberalism
*Contributions to liberal theory
*Liberalism worldwide
*List of liberal parties
*Liberal democracy
*Liberalism in South Africa
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