Darbo partija (leiboristai)

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Darbo partija (leiboristai)
Labor Party (Laborists)
Logo of the DP
Party chairman Viktor Uspaskich
Party leader Viktor Uspaskich (since 2018)
Honorary Chairman Viktor Uspaskich
founding 2003
Headquarters Vilnius
Alignment Populism , centrism
Colours) Blue White
Parliament seats
1/141
( Seimas , 2016 )
Number of members 15,500 (2011)
MEPs
1/11
( 2019 )
European party Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)
EP Group Renew Europe (RE)
Website www.darbopartija.lt

The Darbo partija (leiboristai) ( DP , German: Labor Party (Laborists) ) is a populist party in Lithuania , which is located in the left center. It has the characteristics of a social-populist party. Its founder and leader is the millionaire Viktor Uspaskich . It primarily addresses voters who are dissatisfied with the economic situation, as well as members of the Russian and Polish minorities, and is mainly elected outside of the larger cities.

history

Darbo partija was founded in 2003 by Russian- born entrepreneur Viktor Uspaskich . In the election for the European Parliament in June 2004, the first election to which the party took, she won right away 30.2% of the vote and moved in with five seats as the strongest Lithuanian party in parliament. There she joined the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe . She was also a member of the European Democratic Party, founded in 2004, until 2012 .

In the election for the Lithuanian parliament Seimas on October 10, 2004, the Darbo partija united 28.4% of the votes and reached 39 of the 141 seats. Although the leading parties in Lithuania had previously ruled out a coalition, the Social Democrats and Social Liberals formed a government with the Labor Party. Their party leader Uspaskich became Minister of Economic Affairs (but only until June 2005).

At the beginning of May 2006, in view of the increasing allegations of financial irregularities in the party's bookkeeping, numerous members rebelled against the party's founder and authoritarian chairman Uspaskich. Under the leadership of Viktoras Muntianas , one of the founding members of the Labor Party, eight parliamentarians resigned from the parliamentary group and founded the parliamentary group of the Democratic Citizens' Party . As a result, the government coalition with the Social Democrats broke up. The Labor Party was no longer represented in the new minority government of Gediminas Kirkilas ( LSDP , from July 2006), but often voted with the government in parliament as a result.

A total of 17 of the initially 41 MPs left the parliamentary group by the summer of 2007 (a total of 9 for the Citizens 'Party, 4 for the Social Democrats , 2 for the Farmers' Party , 1 for the Independent Group and 1 for the Liberal Democrats ).

As a result of the investigations by the public prosecutor's office, Viktor Uspaskich fled to Russia and in June 2006 gave up the party chairmanship by telephone in favor of his deputy Loreta Graužinienė . Lorėta Graužinienė acted as chairman until new elections on August 26, 2006, when Kęstutis Daukšys was elected as the new chairman.

In the local elections on February 25, 2007, the party was able to win 111 seats in the municipalities with 7.16% of the vote. This made it the sixth strongest party. Viktor Uspaskich returned from Moscow in September 2007 and was re-elected chairman of "his" party in November 2007.

The parliamentary election in October 2008 was a defeat, but it turned out to be less than expected after the scandals surrounding its party leader and the numerous party and parliamentary groups who left the party. The Labor Party got 9% and 10 seats in the Seimas. She has been in the opposition ever since .

In the 2009 European elections , too, the party was able to hold its own and received 8.8% of the valid votes. Their party chairman Viktor Uspaskich then moved into the European Parliament as a member of the European Parliament .

The party has 12,800 members and at the end of 2008 was the wealthiest party in Lithuania with 6.5 million litas (almost 1.9 million euros) in cash .

After the dissolution of the Naujoji Sąjunga (Socialliberalai) (New Union (Sozialliberale)) on July 9, 2011, most of this party joined the Darbo partija, which in May 2012 became a member of the European Liberal, Democratic and Reform Party .

In 2013 Darbo partija merged with Leiboristai and became Darbo partija (leiboristai).

Politician

EP members
minister
mayor

management

Chairperson

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Daunis Auer, Andres Kasekamp: The impact of radical right parties in the Baltic states. In: Transforming the Transformation? The East European radical right in the political process. Routledge, Abingdon (Oxon) / New York 2015 pp. 137–153, at p. 148.
  2. ^ Kai-Olaf Lang: Populism in East Central Europe. Forms of manifestation, peculiarities and opportunity structures. In: Populism in Europe - Crisis of Democracy? Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, pp. 137–154, on p. 146.
  3. ↑ Saulius Sužiedėlis: Historical Dictionary of Lithuania. 2nd edition, Scarecrow Press, Lanham MD / Plymouth 2011, p. 163, entry Labor Party .
  4. ↑ Uspaskichs re-election as party chairman of the Labor Party, report from delfi.lt (lit.)
  5. ^ Result of the 2009 European elections in Lithuania
  6. ^ MEPs from Lithuania in the European Parliament 2009-2014
  7. ↑ Party statistics of the state electoral authority, message on delfi.lt, March 2, 2009 (lit.)