Purified National Party

The Purified National Party (Afrikaans: Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party, GNP) was an Afrikaner nationalist political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1934 as a splinter group opposed to the merging of the National Party (NP) into the United Party (UP) led by future prime minister D. F. Malan, then merged with a UP faction led by former prime minister J. B. M. Hertzog to form the Reunited National Party (Herenigde Nasionale Party, HNP) in 1940.

After the NP and South African Party (SAP) signed agreements to form the UP in late June, Malan established the GNP from NP dissident elements. 19 National MPs switched parties during July and August, making the party the official opposition to the UP. At the 1938 general election – the only federal election the GNP contested – the party received 31.3% of the popular vote and gained 8 seats, but remained in distant opposition to a UP supermajority. After Hertzog resigned as prime minister and his UP faction split in opposition to South Africa's support for the Allies during World War II, the GNP and Hertzog's faction formed the HNP. While Hertzog was initially dominant and led the new party in opposition, he was soon overtaken by Malan's faction; Malan was elected prime minister in 1948 and the HNP retook the National Party name in 1951.

Generally described as right-wing, the GNP sought to reduce Afrikaner confidence in the UP merger, opposing efforts to promote a common identity between them and British South Africans. It also criticised South Africa's status as a British dominion, openly supporting republicanism by 1936 and calling for the adoption of "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" (which became co-official with "God Save the King" in 1938) as the sole national anthem. The party supported antisemitism in South Africa and racial segregation, criticising the UP for failing to ban miscegenation and attempting to portray its government as racially liberal. In foreign policy, the GNP supported neutrality and expressed concern that the UP could insert South Africa into a European war.