The party, which succeeded the VNN and NPN, was first led by Egbert Perée, then by Henk Ruitenberg (ex-CP'86) and after him Florens van der Kooi.

The driving forces behind the party in its early years were Marcel Hoogstra and Marc de Boer.

[1] In North Holland the regional wing of the party consisted of Wim Beaux (later chairman of the Nationalist People's Movement), Ton Steemers and Peter van Egmond and the regional wing of Zeeland was led by Wijnand de Putter.

[2][4] The youth wing of the party, the Nieuwe Nationale Jongeren was formed in 2002 and first led by Alex Neid.

[8] Since 2003, the youth wing was led by Geoffrey Robbemond, who also became secretary of the NNP, succeeding Paul Peters.