THE HAGUE, 24/11/06 - The Socialist Party (SP) was the big winner of the Lower House elections. Jan Marijnissen is so obviously its leader that he is sometimes satirically called Mao-rijnissen - and that is not completely an odd comparison given the SP's past.

The Socialist Party (SP) emerged in 1971 from the Netherlands Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist (KPN/ML). This had been formed by a Maoist splinter group from the Netherlands Communist Party (CPN). Because it sounded simpler, KPN/ML chose the name Socialist Party in 1972 - the year Marijnissen became a SP member.

In the early years, the SP was unknown nationally. It functioned as a federation of branches which were closely linked with all kinds of underground and above-ground action groups. The party ran in local elections for the first time in 1974. In Marijnissen's home town of Oss, it won three seats.

Marijnissen took a seat in Oss municipal council in 1975. He remained a council member until 1993 - and also worked until 1985 as a welder in a metal plant. In the intervening period, the SP transformed itself from a network of local cells into a more modern and coherent party.

In 1987, the national party congress - it had not met for 10 years - decided to emphasise its communist fundament less, now that this ideology was falling away everywhere in the world. A year later, in 1988, Marijnissen became the national SP leader.

The party leadership decided in 1993 that the SP should become a protest party. "Vote against, Vote SP" became the slogan. In 1994, the SP made its debut in the Lower House, winning two seats. Marijnissen, the undisputed leader, expands SP to 5 seats in 1998 and 9 in 2002.

Following early elections in 2003 - the 9 seats were retained - Marijnissen took a bold decision. He reversed the slogan "Vote against, Vote SP" to "Vote for, Vote SP." The tomato however remained the party symbol representing protest.

In last Wednesday's election, the SP surged to 26 seats. The broad public has embraced the former communists. Even today though, the stalk of its tomato symbol still has the form of the five-point communist star. And All MPs know very well that Marijnissen's rules determine that they must give their State salaries to the party treasury in exchange for a much lower payment.