Tėvynės Sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai

Tėvynės Sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai Fatherland Federation - Christian Democrats of Lithuania
Party leader	Gabrielius Landsbergis (since 2015)
Deputy Chairman	Irena Degutienė
Honorary Chairman	Vytautas Landsbergis
founding	May 1993
Headquarters	Vilnius Lithuania
Youth organization	Jaunųjų konservatorių lyga Jaunieji krikščionys demokratai Jaunųjų tautininkų organizacija
Alignment	Conservatism Christian Democracy National Conservatism Economic Liberalism
Colours)	Blue green
Parliament seats	31/141 ( Seimas , 2016 )
Number of members	16,500 (2010)
International connections	International Democratic Union
MEPs	3/11 ( 2019 )
European party	European People's Party (EPP)
EP Group	Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
Website	www.tsajunga.lt

The Tėvynės Sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai ( TS-LKD , complete: Tėvynės sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai (konservatoriai, politiniai kaliniai irtiniai, tremtiniai), tautinininkai) , is a political deportee ( Native Democrats and Christian Democrats ) , German: Conservation Council - Christian Democrats Conservative political party in Lithuania .

history

The core of today's party is the Tėvynės Sąjunga (Lietuvos Konservatoriai) ( TS (LK)) ; German Fatherland League (Conservatives of Lithuania ). It was founded in May 1993 from the right wing of the Lithuanian Movement for Renewal Sąjūdis and initially led by Vytautas Landsbergis .

In the 1996 elections , the party secured 40% of the vote and 70 seats in parliament ( Seimas ). She then took over government responsibility in a coalition with the Christian Democrats , and Gediminas Vagnorius became Prime Minister . Towards the end of the legislative period, the conservatives were hurt by scandals over the privatization of state-owned companies and the economic consequences of the ruble crisis . The Christian Democrats left the coalition and the Fatherland Union formed a government without a parliamentary majority, first under Andrius Kubilius , then under Rolandas Paksas .

In the scheduled parliamentary elections in 2000 , the Fatherland Union received the receipt and only received 8.6% of the valid votes. She got nine seats and went into opposition. In May 2003, Vytautas Landsbergis was replaced by Andrius Kubilius as party leader. In the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004, the Patriotic Union managed to move into the European Parliament with two members, one of whom was Vytautas Landsbergis (re-elected until 2014). In the elections to the Lithuanian parliament on October 10, 2004, Tėvynės Sąjunga received 14.6% of the vote and won 25 of the 141 seats. She stayed in the opposition.

The Patriotic Union, which was consolidated through further party mergers (see below), emerged victorious from the elections in October 2008, it received almost 20% of the votes and a total of 44 of the 141 mandates in the Seimas (including 26 direct mandates, which is more than a third of all direct mandates). It formed a center-right coalition of four parties, which elected the previous opposition leader and party leader of the TS-LKD , Andrius Kubilius, as the new prime minister in parliament on November 28, 2008 . The Conservatives provided 7 of the 14 ministers in the new cabinet. From the 2009 European elections went Tėvynės Sąjunga emerged as the strongest party in Lithuania and gained four seats, including one for the list leader Vytautas Landsbergis.

After a significant loss of votes in the 2012 parliamentary elections , the Union of Patriots has not been a member of the government since November 2012. Also in the 2014 European elections the lost Tėvynės Sąjunga two of their previous four mandates. She was only able to move in with Vytautas Landsbergis' grandson, Gabrielius Landsbergis (party chairman since 2015) and Algirdas Saudargas , with only two MPs.

In the 2016 elections , the Patriotic Union was able to compensate for the loss of votes in the last election and became the strongest party by percentage. Due to the complex Lithuanian electoral system, however, it was only able to send 31 members (two fewer than in the last election) to parliament and again became the second largest group. The party then remained in the opposition.

Party mergers

In 2004, before the upcoming parliamentary and European elections, there was a consolidation in the conservative spectrum of parties: the Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees (Lithuanian Lietuvos politinių kalinių ir tremtinių sąjunga ) in February 2004 and the Union of the Right of Lithuania (Lithuanian Lietuvos dešiniujų sąjunga ) joined the Tėvynės Sąjunga, which from then on traded under the name Tėvynės Sąjunga (konservatoriai, politiniai kaliniai ir tremtiniai, krikščioniškieji demokratai) (German Fatherland Union (Conservatives, political prisoners and displaced persons, Christian democrats) ).

In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in 2008, a renewed consolidation in the right-wing party spectrum led to the accession of the splinter party of the Lithuanian People's Union (Lithuanian Lietuvių tautininkų sąjunga ) in March 2008 and two months later the merger with the traditional party of the Lithuanian Christian Democrats (Lithuanian Lietuvos krikščionys , short demokratai krikdemai ). Since then, the official name in Tėvynės Sąjunga - Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai (konservatoriai, politiniai kaliniai ir tremtiniai, tautininkai) ( TS-LKD ; see above).

So-called “factions” of the Christian Democrats (since 2003), the National (since 2008) and the Political Prisoners and Deportees (since 2007) as well as the Christian Democratic Community (since 2008) continue to work in the party. The latter joined forces with the Christian Democratic Group in February 2009. The new parliamentary group wants to be constituted not only within the party but also in the parliamentary group. The party now has almost 15,000 members, making it the largest party in Lithuania alongside the Social Democrats .

Positions

The party sees itself as conservative , stands for the free market economy , the integration of Lithuania into the West while preserving the national identity. Alongside the Social Democrats, it is the only party with stable structures in political Lithuania since the re-establishment of democracy in 1990 (see also: Lithuanian party landscape ). She is a member of the International Democratic Union and the European People's Party .

Web link

• Homepage of Tėvynės sąjunga (Lithuanian / English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/article.php?id=19449650
2. ^ MEPs from Lithuania in the European Parliament 2009-2014
3. ↑ Merger of two "factions" within the TS-LKD, message on delfi.lt, February 25, 2009 (lit.)
4. ↑ Party statistics of the state electoral authority, message on delfi.lt, March 2, 2009 (lit.)