The Committee-Oud was a group of former members of the social liberal Free-thinking Democratic League (VDB), who had been dissatisfied with the social-democratic character of the Labour Party (PvdA), in which the VDB had merged with the Social Democratic Workers' Party as part of the breakthrough movement.

[5] Between 1948 and 1952, the VVD took part in the broad cabinets led by the Labour Party Prime Minister Willem Drees.

[citation needed] In 1966, frustrated with their hopeless efforts, left-wing LDC members joined a new political party, the Democrats 66 (D66).

[citation needed] During this period the VVD had loose ties with other liberal organisations; together, these formed the neutral pillar.

They included the liberal papers Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad, the broadcaster AVRO and the employers' organisation VNO.

Under Wiegel's leadership, the party oriented towards a new political course, aiming to reform the welfare state and cut taxes.

[citation needed] The course proved to be profitable: in the heavily polarised general election of 1972, the VVD gained six seats.

In 1989 the CDA–VVD cabinet fell over a minor issue, and the VVD lost five seats in the subsequent election, leaving only twenty-two.

In the heavily polarised Dutch general election of 2002, dominated by the rise and murder of Pim Fortuyn, the VVD lost fourteen seats, leaving only twenty-four.

The VVD nonetheless entered a cabinet with the Christian Democratic Appeal and the Pim Fortuyn List (LPF).

After a few months, Zalm "pulled the plug" on the First Balkenende cabinet, after infighting between LPF ministers Eduard Bomhoff and Herman Heinsbroek.

[citation needed] In the subsequent general election of 2003, the VVD with Gerrit Zalm as lead candidate gained four seats, making a total of twenty-eight.

On 2 September 2004, Geert Wilders, a Member of the House of Representatives, left the party after a dispute with parliamentary leader Van Aartsen.

In 2006, the party lost a considerable number of seats in the municipal elections, prompting parliamentary leader Van Aartsen to step down.

[11] The general election of 2006 did not start off well for the VVD: Mark Rutte was criticised by his own parliamentary party for being invisible in the campaign, and he was unable to break the attention away from the duel between then-Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Christian democrats and Wouter Bos of the Labour Party.

[15] A crisis was averted when Rutte called for an ultimatum on his leadership, which Verdonk had to reconcile to, by rejecting her proposal for a party commission.

In opinion polls held after Verdonk's exit, the VVD was set to lose close to ten parliamentary seats in the next election.

However, on 21 April 2012, after failed negotiations with the PVV on renewed budget cuts, the government became unstable and Mark Rutte deemed it likely that a new election would be held in 2012.

[25] After the fourth Rutte cabinet broke down due to disagreements over migration policy, a new election was called for 22 November 2023.

[36] The principles of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy were outlined in the "Liberal Manifesto" (Dutch: Liberaal Manifest) and latterly the election programmes.

It developed a broad outline around the themes of democracy, security, freedom and citizenship, along with a vision of the future of party's internal structure.

Below some of the points from the Manifesto are presented:[37] The VVD has supported the free movement of goods and people within the European single market, and it has historically opposed limits to labor migration.

Since the early 2020s, the party has argued in favor of reducing the reliance of the Dutch economy on unskilled foreign labor.

In the European Committee of the Regions, VVD sits in the Renew Europe CoR Group, with one full and two alternate members for the 2020-2025 mandate.

[42] Historically, the VVD electorate consisted mainly of secular middle-class[43] and upper-class voters, with a strong support from entrepreneurs.

The Telders Foundation is the party's scientific institute and publishes the magazine Liberaal Reveil every two months.