Founders of Fazilet Partisi were also active members of Milli Nizam Partisi, Milli Selamet Partisi and Refah Partisi. The Virtue Party was the first party in this tradition to have genuine intra-party democracy. In the party congress in 2000, the candidate of reformist faction Abdullah Gul gained considerable support to challenge the traditionalist candidate and the party leader Recai Kutan.
Merve Kavakçı, the female elected MP who was banned from swearing her oath in Parliament because she wore hijab, was a Virtue Party member.