This paper argues that, as other ‘new’ parties, at least part of the explanation for the N-VA's success lies in the history preceding its birth; agency of the new party itself is another part of the explanation. Therefore, this paper demonstrates that the N-VA is what Arter has called a successor party, i.e. a party that has managed to become a new entity built on the remnants of a now defunct party organisation. In order to do so, we look at three main aspects: the characteristics of the electorate, the content of the programme, and the structure of the party organisation. On these three accounts, the N-VA can be regarded as a successor party that successfully built on an existing organisation yet managed to dissociate from its predecessor. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished