(DRAFT) The long march of the Dutch Socialist Party Holland turns Red? The rise of the Dutch Socialist Party (SP) is a remarkable development on the European political landscape. Coming from a maoist past, the SP, frequently described as 'radical left', has since the mid-2000's several times seemed poised to overtake the Dutch labor party as the main left-wing party. The prospect of an established social-democratic party being passed by on its left is rare already, but this seeming possibility is all the more puzzling in a country like the Netherlands that seemed to escape the worst repercussions of the post-2008 recession and without particularly strong left-wing traditions. Especially since 2006, when it captured over 16 per cent of the vote, the SP has attracted international attention from scholars and activists looking at the possibilities for the development of new parties, to the left of social-democracy. However, discussions about the SP are sometimes hampered by a lack of knowledge of its trajectory and national context. For such a large party, the SP is not very visible on the international stage. Its members of the European Parliament are part of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) but the SP has not developed links with the European Left Party and in general doesn't invest much resources in building international links. This essay presents a history of the SP and its changing political program as part of the Dutch political landscape, how a maoist groupuscule evolved into a social- democratic mass party thanks to hard work, programmatic adaptions, considerable luck and the failures of its competition.