Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai

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The Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai ( LKD , German: Christian Democrats of Lithuania ) was a Christian Democratic conservative political party in Lithuania .

In May 2008 the party merged with the Tėvynės Sąjunga (German Patriotic Union ) to form Tėvynės Sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai ( TS-LKD ). Since then the Christian Democrats of Lithuania have existed within the Patriotic Union .

Until the founding of the state (1904–1920)

The beginnings of the Christian Democrats go back to the time before the First World War , when Lithuania was still part of Russia . In the spirit of optimism in the revolutionary year 1905 , three Lithuanian priests, Maironis , Adomas Dambrauskas-Jakštas and Pranciškus Bučys, wrote the first Christian Democratic party program in St. Petersburg in April 1904. The Union of Lithuanian Christian Democrats ( Lietuvių krikščionių Demokratieų sąjunga ) was constituted in December 1905 at the Vilnius Grand Seimas , the first meeting of all Lithuanian political forces in Vilnius.

The Christian Democrats saw themselves as a Christian democratic alternative to the Social Democrats and the anti-clerical Democratic Party, which were seen as too radical . The aim was to achieve social and economic progress without shaking the prevailing social order. The party found sympathizers among the young priests in Lithuania, who turned more and more away from Poland and emphasized Lithuanian independence. The priest Juozas Tumas-Vaizgantas joined the aforementioned as the driving force .

After 1905, however, the repressive actions of the Russian tsar made political activity more difficult for all parties. The founders of the party were Catholic theologians in St. Petersburg . The Christian Democrats evaded the social movement and contributed significantly to the education of the rural population in a Catholic, national sense. The social work was supported by the Catholic educational movement "Saulė" (German "Sun" , founded in 1906), which in 1910 had 72 groups, 40 schools and some libraries, and the rural youth movement "Pavasaris" (German "Spring" , founded 1911).

In April 1917 the party was founded again in St. Petersburg, where many Lithuanians had fled from the German occupation, and called itself the Party of the Lithuanian Christian Democrats ( Lietuvos krikščionių Demokratie partija ). Its first chairman, Pastor Mykolas Krupavičius, was responsible for the development work. The Christian Democrats were one of the determining currents in the Lithuanian State Council (lit. Lietuvos Taryba ), which was elected by the Vilnius Conference in September 1917, with the task of realizing the independence of Lithuania. Leading Christian Democrats were Pranas Dovydaitis , Aleksandras Stulginskis and Justinas Staugaitis . From this State Council emerged the first governments, it declared the independence of Lithuania (February 16, 1918) and prepared the elections for the Constituent Assembly in April 1920. On November 20, 1917, the first party congress took place on Lithuanian soil (in Vilnius), a new party program was adopted and Stulginskis was elected chairman.

First Republic (1920-1940)

With the first free elections to a constituent assembly, which met for the first time on May 15, 1920, the Christian Democrats became the decisive political force in Lithuania: they received 59 of 112 seats to be allocated. The following years until 1926 were characterized by the search for one broad government base and the repeatedly breaking out disputes with the coalition partner of the Bauernvolksbund . Together, the coalition elected the Christian Democrat Aleksandras Stulginskis as the new president . After a year and a half of intensive work in the Constituent Assembly, the coalition collapsed in January 1922 before the new constitution was passed. The Christian Democrats advocated religious instruction and compensation for the land expropriated. On August 1, 1922, they passed the constitution without the votes of the Bauernvolksbund, including the controversial preamble, which read "In the name of the Almighty".

In the elections of October 1922, the Christian Democrats narrowly missed an absolute majority with 38 out of 78 seats. Stulginskis was confirmed as president by parliament. However, a government with a majority could not be formed and new elections had to be scheduled for May 1923. Here the Christian Democrats were able to win two more seats and thus had a wafer-thin majority of 40 of the 78 seats. At first, however, they ruled in a coalition with the Peasant People's Union (until June 1924). This re-elected Stulginskis as President and Ernestas Galvanauskas from the Bauernvolksbund as Prime Minister. After this coalition again u. a. failed because of disputes over the influence of religion on politics, the Christian Democrats formed sole governments under the Prime Minister Antanas Tumėnas, Vytautas Petrulis and Leonas Bistras.

The parliamentary elections of May 1926 led to the loss of the absolute majority, but the Christian Democrats remained the strongest party in parliament with 30 out of 85 seats. The government was formed by the previous opposition parties, the Bauernvolksbund and Social Democrats with the support of the parties of the national minorities (Jews, Poles). The Christian Democrats could not come to terms with their opposition role. They rejected the peace treaty they had prepared with the Soviet Union and polemicized against the opening of Polish schools. Eventually they joined the coup d'état of the National Union under Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras in December 1926. With their votes in parliament, they gave the coup a democratic look, but renounced leading state offices. Aleksandras Stulginskis was only head of state for a few hours on December 19, 1926 as the newly elected chairman of parliament before Smetona was elected as the new president. After President Smetona dissolved parliament in April 1927, but did not comply with the demands of the Christian Democrats for new elections, the latter left the government on May 2, 1927. In the following years Smetona installed an autocratic system with the elimination of parliament. The Christian Democratic Party ceased its activity. On February 6, 1936, like all other parties with the exception of the National Union, it was banned. In June, the mouthpiece of the Christian Democrats, the newspaper Rytas ( The Morning ) met the same fate.

Since 1989

With the beginning of the democratization of the Soviet Union and the growing independence movement, the Christian Democrats party was re-founded under the name Lietuvos krikščionių democ partija ( LKDP , German: Party of Christian Democrats of Lithuania ) in February 1989. 16 people signed the declaration of February 10, 1989, which established the re-establishment on February 16. These included two politicians who had been members of the Christian Democrats before World War II . Two party members were elected to parliament in the subsequent elections to the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania on February 24 (Egidijus Klumbys and Algirdas Saugardas).

In the first parliamentary elections in Lithuania, which was again independent in 1992, the Christian Democrats were able to win 10 seats. After the 1996 elections , they even got 16 seats and formed a government coalition with the conservatives . The Christian Democrats received three ministries. The coalition broke up in June 1999 over disputes over the privatization of state-owned enterprises and overcoming the economic consequences of the ruble crisis .

In the period that followed, the party was never able to recover from its loss of reputation from its reign (1996–1999) and repeatedly failed to meet the 5% hurdle. After the 2008 elections did not promise entry into parliament, the union with the Patriotic Union took place in May 2008 . After the elections in October 2008 , the former Christian Democrats are now represented by seven members of the parliamentary group of the Fatherland Union .

Spin-offs

In the recent history of the party there have been numerous split-offs by dissatisfied members.

Krikščionių Demokratieų sąjunga (KDS)

As early as 1990, under the leadership of the previous party chairman and well-known dissident of the Soviet era , Viktoras Petkus, the Krikščionių Demokratieų sąjungą ( KDS , German: Christian Democratic Union ) was formed. From 1991 it was led by the doctor and USA emigrant Kazys Bobelis . However, it could not win large shares of the vote and was only represented in the Lithuanian Parliament ( Seimas ) through the direct mandate of its chairman. After the party just failed to pass the 5% hurdle in the 2000 elections (4.2%), it decided in April 2001 to reunite with the LKDP. Although practically a merger of two parties, only the LKDP was formally renamed in the traditional name Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai ( LKD ) and the KDS then immediately joined this renamed party (May 12, 2001). The background to this procedure was the endeavor to prevent the LKDS from continuing among renegades ( see below ). Kazys Bobelis became the new chairman of the reunited LKD.

Moderniujų krikščionių Demokratieų sąjunga (MKDS)

The Union of Modern Christian Democrats (lit. Moderniujų krikščionių Demokratieų sąjunga ( MKDS )) split off from the Christian Democrats in 1998. In the parliamentary elections in 2000 , the party only ran for direct seats, with its party leader Vytautas Bogušis running on the list of the central liberal union . The party could only win 1 direct mandate. The cooperation with the Center Union was continued in the local elections in 2002 and culminated on May 31, 2003 in the establishment of the new Liberal and Center Union (together with the Liberal Union ).

Lietuvos krikščioniškosios democijos partija (LKDS)

The Christian Democracy Party of Lithuania (lit. Lietuvos krikščioniškosios democijos partija ( LKDS )) was founded from members of the old LKDP, who rejected the merger with the KDS to form the LKD. The rejection was based in particular on the fact that the controversial Kazys Bobelis, as chairman of the acceding KDS, was to become the new chairman of the LKD. The attempt of the dropouts to continue to run the party under the old name failed (the LKDP had only changed its name, but did not merge with the KDS to form a new party) and so the party was re-registered on January 28, 2003 under a slightly changed name . After violent internal party disputes, she did not run in the parliamentary elections in 2004 (as in 2008) and otherwise failed in elections.

Individual evidence

  1. At that time the Theological Academy was located in St. Petersburg, the central training center for all higher-ranking Catholic priests in the Russian Empire
  2. http://www.lituanus.org/1996/96_4_03.htm
  3. ↑ In total 8 of the 20 members were Christian Democrats (according to the archived copy ( memento of the original from January 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / dokumentai.tripod.com
  4. http://www.lituanus.org/1986/86_3_01.htm
  5. http://www.lituanus.org/1986/86_3_01.htm
  6. They only provided two ministers

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