Liberal Party (Vyvland)

Liberal Party Liberalpaart Liberale Partij
File:Vyvland liberal.png
Chairperson	Kurl Pondfrop
Deputy Chairperson	Vren Dens
Founded	February 6, 1986 (1986-02-06)
Preceded by	Radical People's Party
Headquarters	15 Goydmurtplaac, Vlud Liberaalaas, Klarenceweg, Lorence
Youth wing	Liberal Future
Ideology	liberalism social liberalism classical liberalism pacifism progressivism
Esquarian Parliament group	Liberals
Colours	Yellow
Political position	centre to centre-left
Election symbol	L
Parliament	114 / 580
Esquarian Parliament	4 / 23
Provincial Diets	215 / 2,078
Provincial Chancellors	1 / 15
Website
http://www.liberaal.vy

The Liberal Party is a Vyvlander liberal political party, which is the second-largest in the Parliament of Vyvland and junior partner in Gyneld Welelmsen's coalition government. They are positioned between the centre and centre-left, but previously with a considerable classical liberal and libertarian element until the formation of the Capitalists for the 2005 election. Now the Liberals pursue broadly centrist and progressive aims, and are relatively pacifist. They are currently a junior party, in addition to the Capitalist-Libertarian Party, in a Conservative-led coalition government, in which the party holds five of twelve ministries.

History

The Liberal Party stems from the liberal and radical tradition in Vyvland, represented in North Vyvland by the Radical People's Party and pre-Civil War by the Radical Party, which traditionally represented the country's Methodist community.

The Liberals in government 1986-93

The Liberal Party was formed from the North Vyvlander Radical People's Party. Initially, the Liberals were the smaller party of the three main traditional political groups in Vyvland (liberal, socialist and conservative), gaining 94 seats in the 1986 general election. However, concurrent with this election was the 1986 presidential election, marking the first election Vyvland had held for President. The Liberals' strong candidate in the election, combined with poor campaigns from the Socialists and KDC, ensured that the Liberals' candidate, Enrig Dalder, moved into the second round, where he easily beat National candidate Piter Wesgurd.

Enrig Dalder on election night in 1986, shortly after winning the first round

Dalder's popularity was instrumental in the early successes of the party, bringing it into an unlikely prominence for a centrist party, which has been maintained since. His cooperation with Abram Zymeker's reformist government earned him respect from those to the party's left, while his support for Vyvlander integration won him the support of many others, despite alienating supporters of the former Southern government and their successors, the Nationals. When Zymeker's government collapsed in 1989 due to disagreements with the Liberals over the extent of the reforms, the party was able to present itself as both a party of government and a voice of moderation, and thus won the second-largest number of seats in the 1989 general election, beating the Socialists by one seat.

Despite forming a government in which the KDC were the largest party, Prime Minister Denis Eeris defected to the party half-way through the term. During the four-year term, the Liberals thus became increasingly dominant over the policy decisions of the government, despite their position as a junior party. Eeris and Dalder's popularities led Eeris's successor, Linda Sgartermaan, to win an unexpected and overwhelming plurality of seats in the 1993 general election, in which the party was able to capture votes from right and left. Sgartermaan went on to form a precarious minority government with only the Greens, after the Socialists and the KDC declined coalition negotiations. This government was very unstable, however, and lasted only 320 days before a further election was called, in which the Liberals decreased their number of seats to 60% of the 1993 total.

The Liberals during instability 1994-2009

The next two years under Anhelm Ferog's administration saw the Liberals begin to recuperate from their tormentuous time in government from 1993-4. Due to the nature of the coalition between the Socialists and KDC, it was easy for the Liberals to exploit cross-party divides and thereby weaken the government. In the 1996 general election, the Liberals were able to capitalise on this, in addition to on the perceived tiredness of the KDC, and followed by forming a coalition with the Socialists under the premiership of Mafjas Skenterby. In the same year, Enrig Dalder resigned as President, being replaced by KDC candidate Erik Menjreng, whom he had officially endorsed before the presidential election following his resignation.

The Skenterby government was widely disliked by the electorate, partly due to the inability of it to pass laws due to extensive use of veto powers by new President Erik Menjreng. On average over the two years, one bill was passed every forty days. This resulted in widespread unpopularity for Menjreng, in addition to the two main government parties. A strong Conservative opposition headed by Rikard Fegaad was able to use this to their advantage, achieving 207 seats, the highest number for any party since 1983, in the 1998 general election. The Liberals were not chosen to form a coalition, instead being forced back into opposition and remaining as the third-largest party, as they had done since 1994. Party leader Jesika Snoifer resigned six weeks after the election, before Gregor Mejer took the position. Mejer was regarded as an ineffective leader, with polls showing increased support for Fegaad and decreases for the Liberals. As such, he was ousted by a vote at the 2001 party conference, being replaced by the moderate and young Vredurd Dengkus.

Dengkus went on to give the Liberals their best spell during the period, maintaining a fruitful coalition after the 2002 general election with the winning KDC. However, the Liberals bore the brunt of the latter months of the coalition, which resulted in much instability both in the government and in both individual parties; just months before the 2005 general election, the right-wing libertarian wing of the Liberals split off to form the Capitalist-Libertarian Party, which gained 17 seats, twelve of which became held by former Liberals. The poor performance by the recently-reformed Conservatives ushered in a period of dominance for the Socialists under Minke Selengborg, and from 2006, Sofia Beket. During this period, rising party light Robert Ujson became party leader and then Leader of the Opposition due to a deal with the Conservatives.

The Liberals as a major power 2009-present

File:Robert Ujson.jpg

Robert Ujson, President from 2010-2014

Upon the collapse of the Selengborg coalition, the Liberals were poised to win the election under the Prime Ministerial candidate Vren Dens. Dens was able to win the 2009 general election due to moving the party tactically to gain control of disillusioned Socialist voters, although she unexpectedly managed to cause the Conservatives' seat share to decrease slightly too. The Liberals were more flexible to move to the left due to no longer having the commitment of their classical liberal wing, although this meant that the Capitalist-Libertarians became more prominent in the 2009 election. On polling day, the Liberals managed to achieve 187 seats, or 20 more than their previous high in 1983. They joined with the Greens and Socialists to form a very stable coalition with a large majority of Parliament seats. Their support stayed strong in 2010, in which Robert Ujson won the presidential election.

However, sluggish economic recovery from the recession at the beginning of Dens' term led to widespread criticism of the government and poorer showings in the polls, despite Ujson's continuing popularity. Although the coalition lasted the full four years, the 2013 general election saw their seat numbers drop, and a new coalition was formed with the Liberals as the junior partner of the Conservatives. However, the party still maintained its position as the second-largest in Parliament, partly due to ineffective Socialist leadership under Niklas Brule.

In the 2013 Esquarian Parliament elections, the Liberals experienced a loss of two seats to gain only four, from 16.1% of the vote. This was seen as partly due to a gaffe that Liberal President Robert Ujson made in the week preceding the elections, during which he remarked on Crolacian Prime Minister Larisa Reutt's breasts at the Esquarium Summit. The next year, Ujson lost the presidency to Pamela Oegelkeper despite being expected to win before revelations, now known to be false, emerged about his hiring of a prostitute. With a much weaker Liberal voice in government, poll ratings started to slip quickly for the party, which by mid-2015 was frequently polling in the single digits on voting intention. This poor standing was confirmed at the 2015 local elections, in which the Liberals lost 40% of their seats in the Provincial Diets and thousands of municipal councillors.

Elections

Election	Seats	+/–	Government
2013	114 / 568	73	in government
2009	187 / 568	80	in government
2005	107 / 580	17	in opposition
2002	124 / 580	18	in government
1998	106 / 580	18	in opposition
1996	124 / 580	24	in government
1994	100 / 580	67	in opposition
1993	167 / 580	52	in government
1989	115 / 580	21	in government
1986	94 / 580	new	in government