Tautos pažangos partija
The Tautos pažangos partija ( TPP , German: Progressive Party of the People ) is a conservative nationalist political party in Lithuania . It was particularly important during the founding of the Republic of Lithuania .
1917-1924
The beginnings of the party lie in the upheavals in Russia due to the First World War . With the democratic revolution in February 1917, the democratic forces of the various peoples of the Russian Tsarist Empire began to form. Thus, in February 1917, the Lithuanian National Council was formed in St. Petersburg . One of the six parties involved was the People's Progressive Party , which was founded in 1916 by Juozas Kubilius, Liudas Noreika (1884–1928) and the priest Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas . All three were politically active in St. Petersburg, Noreika as a publicist (magazine Lietuvos balsas , German voice of Lithuania ), Kubilius and Tumas-Vaižgantas in the relief organization for the Lithuanian expellees during the war.
At the same time, representatives of the Progressive Party in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius , which was occupied by the troops of the German Reich at the time, took part in the independence movement there. The most important representatives were Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras , although they appeared as non-party in the Lithuanian State Council , which was later renamed State Council. The most important endeavor of the Progress Party is the unconditional restoration of Lithuania's state independence, regardless of the form of government. Antanas Smetona was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence of February 16, 1918 and was elected Lithuania's first President in April 1919, after the independence of Lithuania had become a reality through the end of the German occupation.
In the subsequent elections for the constitution-giving Seimas in April 1920, the TTP could not win any seats. In the elections that followed in 1922 and 1923, too, she came away empty-handed. During this time the leading representatives, Smetona and Voldemaras, positioned themselves as sharp opponents of parliamentarism and the communists . The magazines they published (including Lietuvos balsas and Vairas (German steering wheel )) were regularly banned and Voldemaras even sentenced to a lengthy prison term (autumn 1923).
In August 1924 it merged with the Economic and Political Association of Agricultural Workers (Lithuanian Ekonominės ir politinės žemdirbių sąjunga ) and the party was renamed Union of Lithuanian Nationalists (LTS). As such, she won three seats in parliament in the third Seimas elections in May 1926.
Re-establishment in 1992/94
After disagreements in the parliamentary group of Lithuanian nationalists , which was formed at the end of 1990 from 12 members of the Sąjūdis in the constitution-giving Seimas, five members joined together in January 1992 to form the Group of the People's Progress , which in May 1992 founded the movement of People's progress followed. In the parliamentary elections in October 1992, however, this movement could not win any seats (1.1% of the valid votes).
On 28. May 1994 the movement was on the first Congress of the Progressive Party of the people converted (TPP) and ties with it since then, especially to its predecessor party to. In the current party landscape , however, it has remained a national-conservative splinter party for the time being.