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The National Progressive Front (Arabic: الجبهة الوطنية التقدمية, al-Jabha al-Wataniyyah at-Taqaddumiyyah, NPF), established in 1972, is a coalition of political parties in Syria that support the socialist and Arab nationalist orientation of the government and accept the leading role in society of the Arab Socialist Ba’th Party.
The Front was established by Syrian president Hafiz al-Asad to provide for a limited degree of participation in government by political parties other than the ruling Ba'th Party. Its constitution provides that the Ba'th Party controls 50% plus one of the votes on its executive committee. A number of seats in the People's Council of Syria are reserved for members of NPF parties other than the Ba'th Party.
From 1972 to date, only parties participating in the NPF have been legally permitted to operate in Syria. There is currently considerable discussion in Syria regarding a proposed new law which will allow political parties to be formed more generally: it is as yet unclear whether the parties to be licensed under this law would be required to join the NPF. Traditionally, the parties of the NPF are socialist and/or Arab nationalist in orientation, but in 2005 the Syrian Social Nationalist Party was formally legalised and joined the front as the first non-Socialist, non-Arab nationalist party admitted to the NPF. Some have suggested this may allow toleration of broader ideological viewpoints within Syrian politics, but ethnically-based (Kurdish and Assyrian) movements continue to be repressed, and a strict ban on religious and right-wing parties is still enforced.
The NPF is composed of seven political parties:
- Arab Socialist Ba'th Party (Article 8 of the Syrian constitution states that "the Arab Socialist Ba'th Party leads the state and society"),
- Arab Socialist Movement
- Arab Socialist Union
- Communist Party of Syria (Khalid Bakdash faction)
- Communist Party of Syria (Yusuf Faisal faction)
- Social Democratic Unionists
- Socialist Unionists
- Syrian Social Nationalist Party
- Democratic Socialist Unionist Party
- Arabic Democratic Unionist Party
- National Vow Movement
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