replaced by Marcus Bakker. De Groot was made an honorary member of the CPN. The party won another seat, making the total five. The CPN condemned the Soviet intervention against the Prague Spring. In 1971 yet another seat was added, and in 1972 the party had seven seats. The 1977 election saw a conflict between the social-democrat Joop den Uyl and the Christian-democrat Dries van Agt. Many CPN sympathizers voted for the social-democratic PvdA and the CPN lost all but two seats. In 1978 under pressure from new young members De Groot lost his honorary membership. In the 1981 elections the placement of American nuclear weapons is a major issue. The CPN, which prominently led one of the campaigning groups, The Committee against the N-bomb, was rewarded with another seat. In the 1982 the party got its first mayor in the Communist stronghold of Beerta. Before the elections of the same year Marcus Bakker stepped down in favour of Ina Brouwer. With her a new generation of younger, often female MPs entered politics. She was able to keep the three seats. The CPN tried to renew its political program, emphasizing New Left issues like feminism and gay rights. In reaction to this working class-oriented members founded the Horizontal Council of Communists (called so because they were members from different local branches, breaking the vertical organization of democratic centralism). The group tried to pressure the CPN into returning to its Old Left course. In 1983 they left the party and formed the League of Communists in the Netherlands (VCN,Verbond van Communisten In Nederland). In 1986 both the CPN and VCN contested the elections. Neither won a seat in the House of Representatives. The CPN still had two senators. As one of the last acts of the party, the party leadership attended the festivities surrounding 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. Dissolution In 1989 the party merged with three other small leftwing parties, namely the Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP), the left-wing Christian Political Party of Radicals (PPR) and the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) to form the GreenLeft. In 1991, the party officially disbanded; the VCN was joined by other former members of the CPN, who left because they disagreed with the new course, and founded the New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN), which still exists today. There is no influence left of the old Marxist wing of the CPN in