Editing Progressive Federal Party (section)

== History ==

South Africa's apartheid laws initially limited the party's membership to the country's whites, from which it drew support mainly from liberal [[South African English|English]] speakers. It opened up its membership to all races as soon as this became legal again, in 1984,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/opposition-progressive-federal-party-pfp-opens-its-membership-all-races|title=The opposition Progressive Federal Party (PFP) opens its membership to all races.|last=tinashe|date=11 November 2011|website=sahistory.org.za}}</ref> but the party remained predominantly white and English. It won seats in cities such as Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban. It had very little support amongst Afrikaners, and the PFP was derided by right-wing whites, who claimed its initials stood for '[[South African Australians|Packing for Perth]]', because of the many white liberal supporters of the 'Progs', who were emigrating to [[Australia]].<ref name=":0">[https://books.google.com/books?id=3PNt46aB_sYC&dq=%22Packing+for+Perth%22+%22PFP%22&pg=PA82 ''Native Vs. Settler: Ethnic Conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa''], Thomas G. Mitchell, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000, page 82</ref>

The PFP would become the official opposition in the 1977 election, winning 17 seats. Colin Eglin, who had also led the earlier Progressive Party, was initially the leader of the PFP. But over the weekend of 3 September 1979, on the behest of [[Gordon Waddell]], the PFP would hold a special congress in [[Johannesburg]] to elect a new leader, citing such reasons as Eglin's "uninspired" parliamentary performance, which allowed the ruling Nationalists to recover from the [[Muldergate Scandal|Muldergate slush fund scandal]]; his "indiscreet" contacts with black US politicians Don McHenry and [[Andrew Young|Andy Young]], whom many South Africans regarded as enemies of the country; and the party's severe defeats in three recent Parliamentary by-elections.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/121408165/|title=South Africa Opposition Leader falls|last=Alexander|first=Douglas|date=1979-07-31|work=The Age|access-date=2017-05-19}}</ref> [[Frederik van Zyl Slabbert]] succeeded Eglin in 1979.{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

The PFP strengthened its opposition status in 1981 by increasing its representation to 27 seats.<ref name=":0" />

It was ousted as the official opposition by the far-right [[Conservative Party (South Africa)|Conservative Party]] in the whites-only parliamentary elections held on 6 May 1987.{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

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).{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

In 1989, the PFP and NDM merged with another small white reformist party, the [[Independent Party (South Africa)|Independent Party]] (IP), to form the [[Democratic Party (South Africa)|Democratic Party]] (DP).