National Progressive Front

The National Progressive Front (NPF; Arabic: الجبهة الوطنية التقدمية al-jabhah al-waṭanīyah at-taqaddumīyah) is a united front and coalition of seven political parties which together hold a majority of seats in the Arab Congress, the federal bicameral legislative assembly of the Arab Union. It is led by the National Command of the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party; the six non-ruling member parties of the NPF officially support the policy of the Ba'ath Party, to which they are de facto subordinate. The NPF's counterpart is the National Alliance, a coalition of the five opposition parties holding seats the Arab Congress; the only officially neutral Congress seats not part of either coalition are the 18 held by independent politicians.

The seven parties constituting the National Progressive Front together hold a total of 332 out of 488 seats in the Council of Deputies (the lower chamber of the Arab Congress, whose members are called deputies) and 31 of 40 seats in the Council of Republics (the upper chamber, whose members are called senators), accounting for 68% and 77.5% of seats, respectively. Within the coalition, Ba'athists account for just over half of deputies and just under half of senators.

In addition to forming the government of the Arab Union (the federal government) due to holding a majority of Arab Congress seats, the NPF holds a majority of seats in each republican congress (the unicameral assemblies of each of the Arab Union's 20 republics (federated states). In 17 of the republics, the Ba'ath Party accounts for the most coalition seats, and thus forms the executive government at the republican level therein; however, the Communist Party, which is the second largest coalition party in said 17 republics and at the federal level, actually holds more seats than the Ba'athists in each congress of the remaining three republics (namely Algeria, Tunisia and Yemen), wherein it thus forms those republics' respective executive governments.

The NPF consists of the following political parties; the number of incumbent congressmen/women from each party (at the federal level) is indicated in parentheses (deputies followed by senators):


 * Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (170 • 15)
 * Arab Communist Party (77 • 6)
 * Democratic Front (24 • 4)
 * Arab Republican Party (21 • 2)
 * Arab Social Democratic Party (16 • 2)
 * Arab Progressive Revolutionary Party (14 • 1)
 * Arab People's Party (10 • 1)