The Freedom
| The Freedom | |
|
|
| Party chairman | Andreas Head of Reber |
| Secretary General | Otto Mahlknecht |
| Group leader | Andreas Head of Reber |
| founding | 7th December 1992 |
| Place of foundation | Bolzano |
| Headquarters | Kirchgasse 62, 39018 Terlan |
| Landtag mandates |
2/35 |
| Chamber of Deputies |
0/630 |
| Senators |
0/315 |
| European parliamentarians |
0/76 |
| Party structure | 5 districts (Unterland, Bozen Stadt-Land, Eisacktal, Wipptal, Pustertal) |
| Alignment | Right-wing populism , separatism |
| colour | blue |
| Website | die- Freiheitlichen.com |
The Freedom Party (abbreviated: F ) is a right-wing populist minority party of the German and Ladin ethnic groups in South Tyrol and was founded in Bolzano in 1992 with the official nickname "Liberal-Democratic Alliance" as an opposition to the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP), which has ruled South Tyrol since 1949 . There are close contacts with the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).
Content profile
The party sees itself as a liberal-democratic party that is particularly committed to freedom and the protection of civil rights. It emphasizes its role as an oppositional supervisory body vis-à-vis the ruling SVP and represents the South Tyroleans' right to self-determination primarily in the form of an independent Free State of South Tyrol. As a minority party, the party demands the strengthening of the Tyrolean national consciousness and the connection to the "German language and cultural area". Further immigration of so-called Italian-speaking foreigners is rejected as a strengthening of the Italian element. The leader of the parliamentary group at the time, Leitner, said he had identified an "immigration problem" in South Tyrol. In his opinion, too many foreigners come into the country “who have no work and just want to immigrate to the social network”. In 2018, party exponents described a regional gay pride event as a " slapstick initiative ... a small, noisy group of homosexuals" and denounced the official support of the event by the South Tyrolean provincial government.
history
Forerunner in the 1980s
The first liberal party of the post-war period, the Freedom Party of South Tyrol (FPS) around Gerold Meraner , had already existed in the 1980s, before the Freedom Party was founded. After the state elections in 1988, this party had a member of Meraner, but at that time it was already struggling with existential crises. In 1989 this Freedom Party of South Tyrol was absorbed into the Union for South Tyrol . Gerold Meraner later declared the Freedom Party to be the successor to his first Freedom Party in South Tyrol.
Founded in the early 1990s
The Freedom Party emerged from the SVP youth organization after a group of leading youth functionaries around Christian Waldner and Peter Paul Rainer refused to agree to the settlement of the dispute between Austria and Italy on the South Tyrol issue that had been pending before the United Nations since 1960 . Waldner's group saw the international safeguarding of the granted national autonomy not yet sufficiently secured at the time of the dispute settlement.
The founding of the Freedom Party took place under these conditions in conscious reference to the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). For example, they adopted a logo similar to that of the FPÖ. Under the leadership of Jörg Haider, the up-and-coming opposition FPÖ finally tightened the fragile party consensus on the South Tyrol issue, as it had ruled in the Austrian National Council in the 1950s . At the end of the 1960s, the SPÖ had distanced themselves from the ÖVP on this matter; the social democratic regional parties that she had supported in South Tyrol disappeared from the South Tyrolean party landscape in the early 1980s .
The South Tyrolean exponents of the Freedom Party tried for their part to tie in with the tradition of the German Freedom Party which, together with the Tyrolean People's Party, had formed the German Association as the German-South Tyrolean gathering party in 1919 . This alliance, the heir of which the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) had considered itself to be since it was founded in 1945, should now be terminated.
When the party was founded on December 7, 1992 at the Reichrieglerhof in Bozen, Jörg Haider also took part as a founding sponsor. Christian Waldner became the first party chairman.
Party crisis and upswing around the turn of the millennium
The Freedom Party immediately received around 6.06 percent of the vote in the 1993 state elections and became the fourth strongest party. Christian Waldner and Pius Leitner moved into the South Tyrolean state parliament . In 1994 Pius Leitner was elected party chairman.
As a result of the murder of Christian Waldner by the then party leader Peter Paul Rainer , however, the Freedom Party got into severe turmoil in 1997. In the state elections in 1998, the party fell back to 2.5 percent of the vote, of the two seats ( Ulrike Tarfusser had assumed the second in the meantime ) only the one for Leitner could be defended. However, he managed to lead the Freedom Party out of the crisis. In the lee of Leitner, Ulli Mair became the liberal general secretary in 2001 and in 2003 he became the second member of the state parliament. Contrary to the survey results, which had predicted about 1 percent of the votes and thus the departure from the state parliament, the Freedom Party received exactly 5.0 percent of voter consensus.
In the municipal elections in 2005, the party's anchoring at the local level was expanded. At that time, the Freedom Party won over 21 municipal council seats through their own and free citizen lists. In November 2006 the liberal workers' association was presented; In March 2007 the Freedom Party founded the youth organization "Freedom Youth".
The Freedom Party finally achieved a breakthrough in the state elections on October 26, 2008. With an election result of 14.3%, they were able to more than double their electorate within five years and obtain five instead of two seats. The Freedom Party thus established itself as the second largest party in the province; They also became the strongest German-speaking opposition party of the post-war period. During the current legislative period, there were some personnel damage. On March 17, 2012, the previous Secretary General, Ulli Mair, replaced Pius Leitner at the top of the management board. In 2013, Thomas Egger , member of the state parliament , resigned from the free parliamentary group and ran in the state elections of the same year on a community list of the Citizens' Union and Ladins .
In the state elections in 2013 , the Freedom Party was able to extend its result from 2008 and achieve 17.9%. You were represented with six mandataries in the South Tyrolean parliament. In addition to Pius Leitner , Ulli Mair , Roland Tinkhauser and Sigmar Stocker , Walter Blaas and Tamara Oberhofer were new members of the state parliament. The Freedom Party was once again the second strongest force in the South Tyrolean state parliament.
Sex toy affair
At the beginning of 2014, the party fell into a deep crisis due to the debate about political pensions and the so-called " penis ring affair". After the results of the municipal council elections that were below expectations and subsequent media criticism from officials and members, the party leadership announced its resignation. On June 14th, Walter Blaas was elected as the new regional party chairman at an extraordinary state party congress, while Tamara Oberhofer and Walter Frick became regional party chairmen. Simon Auer was subsequently presented as the new General Secretary.
In March 2017, the former party chairman Pius Leitner was sentenced in the first instance to two years of conditional imprisonment for embezzling parliamentary group funds. He was accused of having spent more than 47,000 euros in parliamentary group funds between 2008 and 2013, for which the institutional framework was more than questionable. Since these expenses included a penis ring for 16.99 euros, the matter became known as the “penis ring affair”. Ulli Mair, who was also accused, was acquitted. In the second instance, Leitner was also acquitted.
At the state party conference on May 20, 2017, Andreas Leiter Reber was elected as the new party chairman. In the state elections in 2018 , the Freedom Party suffered a heavy loss of votes and, with 6.2% of the vote, were only able to win two state parliament mandates.
Local council elections 2020
After the electoral debacle of the state elections, the Freedom Party has not yet recovered before the municipal council elections. You will only get a candidacy in 11 South Tyrolean municipalities, in Brixen , Mühlbach , Lana , Kaltern , Eppan , Partschins , Meran , Gais , Mölten , Marling , Burgstall and Lana. More than half of the municipal councils elected in 2015 have already turned their backs on the party.
The freedom at state and European level
The Freedom Party has good contacts with the FPÖ . The chairman of the Freedom Party is the only South Tyrolean party representative to have a seat and vote in committees of the Austrian FPÖ party. In addition, the regional party leader of the South Tyrolean Freedom Party is a member of the federal party executive of the Tyrolean FPÖ. In January 2007 the EU parliamentary group ITS was formed . In protest against the cooperation between the FPÖ and the two Italian parties, which are hostile to autonomy in relation to South Tyrol, Pius Leitner has temporarily withdrawn from the federal party executive of the FPÖ, but not from the executive committee of the Tyrolean federal group. The ITS parliamentary group was dissolved again in November 2007.
Parliamentary elections 2006: When the South Tyrolean People's Party concluded an electoral alliance with the center-left alliance Unione on the occasion of the Italian parliamentary elections in 2006 , the Freedom Party announced its own candidacy. The party received 16,638 of the votes in the Chamber of Deputies, which corresponds to 5.35% of the South Tyrolean electoral vote. In the Senate, the Freedom Party in the Bolzano-Unterland constituency received 2.7% of the votes, 6.2% in the Meran-Vinschgau constituency and 9.2% in the Brixen-Pustertal constituency.
Parliamentary elections 2008: In the parliamentary elections in 2008 , the Freedom Party in South Tyrol achieved 28,224 votes, which corresponds to 9.43%. This was not enough for a seat in parliament, since according to the Italian electoral law, parties of recognized language minorities who only compete in one constituency have to overcome a hurdle of 20% in the constituency. This corresponds to the territory of the Trentino-South Tyrol region and therefore minority parties in South Tyrol must achieve over 40% of the votes. On the other hand, parties running nationwide have to pass a threshold of 2% at the state level. In the Senate, the Freedom Party in the Bolzano-Unterland constituency increased their share to 3.7% of the vote. In the constituency of Meran-Vinschgau they reached 11% and 13.2% in the constituency of Brixen-Pustertal.
Parliamentary elections 2013: In the parliamentary elections in February 2013 , the party achieved its best result to date for the Chamber of Deputies in the regional constituency with 15.9%. In some municipalities the 20% mark has been passed. The Senate candidates achieved 8.0% in the Bolzano constituency (Christian Trafoier), 21.1% in the Brixen constituency (Peter Pichler) and 17.6% in the Merano constituency (Sigmar Stocker). Surveys had seen the Freedom Party at over 20%.
2014 European elections : In the 2014 European elections , the Freedom Party ran for the first time. They cooperated with the Lega Nord , but failed to achieve their electoral goal and were unable to win a mandate. The list connection Lega / Freiheitliche achieved 6%, top candidate Pius Leitner received 6,223 preferential votes.
See also
literature
- Oswald Angerer: The Freedom of South Tyrol. Origin, program, organizational structure, acceptance. With special consideration of their cooperation with the Freedom Party of Austria and their position on the South Tyrol issue. Diploma thesis, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 2000.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ die- Freiheitlichen.com
- ↑ Emotional reactions in South Tyrol to election - tirol.ORF.at. Retrieved January 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Head Reber: “Congratulations to the FPÖ for success in Lower Austria” . In: Südtirol News . ( archive.org [accessed January 29, 2018]).
- ↑ https://die-freiheitlichen.com/satzung/
- ^ The big check ( Memento from September 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: New South Tyrolean daily newspaper , September 13, 2013.
- ↑ Otto Mahlknecht: “Kompatscher's ingratiation with gay lobby”. Retrieved April 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Christoph Franceschini : The election servant. salto.bz , accessed April 7, 2018 .
- ↑ Oswald Angerer: The freedom of South Tyrol. Innsbruck 2000, p. 39.
- ↑ Election results of the regional council elections for Trentino-South Tyrol (PDF; 544 kB) and file: Die Freiheitlichen Logo 1991.svg
- ↑ Oswald Angerer: The freedom of South Tyrol. Innsbruck 2000, p. 53 f.
- ↑ Landtag elections 2008. Final results . Website of the South Tyrolean Citizens' Network. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
- ↑ tageszeitung.it ( Memento from July 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ stol.it ( Memento from August 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ suedtirolnews.it ( Memento from July 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ barfuss.it ( Memento from April 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Freedom: Board of Directors accepts Ulli Mair's resignation ( Memento from October 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Stol.it on May 7, 2014
- ^ Walter Blaas new chairman of the Freedom Party ( Memento from October 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Stol.it on June 14, 2014
- ^ Pius Leitner condemns. salto.bz, March 10, 2017, accessed January 27, 2018 .
- ^ Tiroler Tageszeitung Online: Pius Leitner condemned: mandate in the South Tyrolean parliament expires | Tiroler Tageszeitung online - news from now! In: Tiroler Tageszeitung Online . ( tt.com [accessed March 9, 2020]).
- ↑ stol.it Südtirol Online, Italy: acquittal for Leitner in the second instance . ( archive.org [accessed January 27, 2018]).
- ↑ Andreas Leiter-Reber is the new Freedom Chairman ( Memento from September 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Stol.it on May 20, 2017
- ↑ Head Reber: “Congratulations to the FPÖ for success in Lower Austria” . In: Südtirol News . ( archive.org [accessed January 29, 2018]).
- ↑ Law of December 21, 2005, No. 270 ( online ).
- ↑ Phoenix from the ashes. ( Memento from May 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Neue Südtiroler Tageszeitung , February 26, 2013, accessed on March 6, 2013.
- ↑ Susanne Pitro: European elections: Freedom people also opt for candidacy. March 11, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 .
- ↑ buergernetz.bz.it