Sociaal-Liberale Partij

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Sociaal-Liberale Partij
logo
Party leader (last) Geert Lambert
founding November 11, 2001 ( Spirit )
April 19, 2008 ( Vl.Pro )
January 1, 2009 ( SLP )
Colours) violet
Website www.s-lp.be

The Sociaal-Liberale Partij listen ? / i ( SLP ) was a Belgian left-wing liberal party that was only active in Flanders . Its predecessor SPIRIT emerged from the left wing of the Volksunie in 2001 after the disintegration of the Volksunie . After a rapprochement with the social democratic sp.a (2002 to 2008) and an initial renaming to VlaamsProgressieven (2008) and finally to Sociaal-Liberale Partij (2009), the party joined the green party Groen at the end of 2009 due to disappointing election results ! on. Audio file / audio sample

The SLP and its predecessors were temporarily represented in the Federal Parliament , the Parliaments of Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region . She was also temporarily represented in the federal government and in the Flemish government.

History and direction

The Volksunie (VU), founded in 1954, was a social liberal party with a strong Flemish national flair. However, after the Volksunie failed in 2001 on the so-called Lambermont Agreement, which formed the basis for the fifth Belgian state reform, and a split in the party became apparent, the left-wing liberal wing of the party and that founded by Bert Anciaux (today sp.a ) rallied political renewal movement ID21 and jointly founded the SPIRIT party ( Sociaal progressief internationaal regionalist integraal-democratisch en toekomstgericht , German: social, progressive, international, regionalist, integral democratic and future-oriented). The founders included Bert Anciaux, Els Van Weert and Geert Lambert . The right wing of the VU, in turn, gathered around Geert Bourgeois , the founder of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA).

From 2002 to November 2008 SPIRIT formed a "political cartel " with the sp.a , the Social Democratic Party of Flanders, led by Steve Stevaert . This included a list connection in elections and increased political cooperation. As a result, however, in November 2002 she lost important politicians in the direction of Open VLD (such as Vincent Van Quickenborne or Patrik Vankrunkelsven ) and Groen! (such as Ferdy Willems ). The cartel was vital for the small party because a five percent hurdle ( threshold clause ) had been introduced at the federal level since the 2003 elections . As a result, SPIRIT hit the headlines in particular when the party leadership rejected a compromise solution for the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency in 2005 , which was accepted by the other partners in the Verhofstadt II government. At the European level, the party belonged to the regionalist European Free Alliance .

In the federal elections of 2007, SPIRIT suffered a bitter defeat together with sp.a and only Geert Lambert was able to defend his seat in the Senate . In order to give the party a new dynamic, it was decided in 2008 to rename it VlaamsProgressieven (Vl.Pro). In the same year, Anciaux proposed to finally unite the Vl.Pro with the sp.a, which in the meantime was led by Caroline Gennez , but the majority of the members under Lambert opposed it. As a result, Gennez decided in November 2008 to finally dissolve the cartel. Bert Anciaux and some colleagues went over to sp.a in January 2009.

In order to illustrate the breach of the cartel and to distance itself from the sp.a., the party was renamed again on January 1, 2009, this time as Sociaal-Liberale Partij (SLP). In the regional elections of 2009, however, the SLP could not have a single member of the Flemish Parliament , so that on December 19, 2009, after brief negotiations, a merger with the green party Groen! chaired by Wouter Van Besien and the final dissolution of the SLP took place.

The party advocated, among other things, the fight against poverty and national debt, greater federalization of Belgium and the division of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency , interculturality and the regularization of illegal immigrants (the so-called Sans papiers ).

Election results and government participation

Federal level

In the federal elections of 2003, SPIRIT achieved great success as a cartel partner of sp.a. While sp.a-SPIRIT received a total of 14.91% of the votes and 23 seats for the Chamber of Deputies and 15.47% and 7 seats for the Senate , SPIRIT alone had six seats in the Chamber and two in the Senate. In the federal government Verhofstadt II under Guy Verhofstadt ( VLD ) Bert Anciaux represented SPIRIT from 2003 to 2004 as Minister for Mobility and Social Economy. From 2004 to 2007 Els Van Weert was State Secretary for Sustainable Development and Social Economy in the government.

In the federal elections of 2007, the sp.a-SPIRIT cartel suffered a clear defeat. In the Chamber of Deputies, SPIRIT disappeared completely (the 14 remaining seats went to the sp.a) and in the Senate only Geert Lambert was able to save his seat.

Flanders and Europe

In the regional elections of 2004, the sp.a-SPIRIT cartel received 19.66 percent of the vote and 25 seats. Five of these mandates went to SPIRIT. After the breakdown of the cartel in 2008, SPIRIT (and later Vl.Pro) only had two representatives left, but they had to meet as independents because they were not numerous enough to form a parliamentary group. From 2004 to 2009 Bert Anciaux was minister for culture, youth and sport in the Flemish governments under Yves Leterme and Kris Peeters (both CD&V ) (first for SPIRIT and after the break of the cartel as an independent and then for the sp.a) . In the European elections that were held at the same time, the cartel received 11.04% of the vote and 3 seats in the European Parliament .

In the regional elections on June 7, 2009 and after the cartel was broken, the SLP only received 1.09% of the votes and lost all representation in the Flemish Parliament. At the European level, the SLP did not get more than 0.40% of the votes and could not win a seat here either.

The municipal council elections of 2006, however, did not bring about any major change for the sp.a-SPIRIT cartel.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FPS Interior: Chamber of Deputies: http://verkiezingen2003.belgium.be/electionshome/nl/result/chamber/table_top.html - Senate: http://verkiezingen2003.belgium.be/electionshome/nl/result/senate/table_top. html (accessed June 15, 2010)
  2. ↑ FPS Interior: Chamber of Deputies: http://elections2007.belgium.be/nl/cha/results/results_graph_etop.html - Senate: http://elections2007.belgium.be/nl/sen/results/results_graph_etop.html (accessed on June 15, 2010)
  3. ↑ FPS Interior: http://verkiezingen2004.belgium.be/nl/vla/results/results_graph_etop.html (accessed on June 15, 2010)
  4. ↑ FPS Interior: http://www.verkiezingen2009.belgium.be/nl/vla/results/results_graph_VLR00000.html (accessed on June 15, 2010)
  5. ↑ FPS Interior: http://www.verkiezingen2009.belgium.be/nl/eur/results/results_graph_EUR00000.html (accessed on June 15, 2010)