Liberal Party (Werania)
Liberal Party Liberale Partei | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Ulrich von Bayrhoffer (first) Gottfried von Litzmann (last) |
| Founded | 1842 |
| Dissolved | 13 June 1951 |
| Merged into | Liberal Democratic Party of Werania |
| Headquarters | Westbrucken |
| Ideology | Liberalism Classical liberalism National liberalism |
| Political position | Centre to centre-right (1842-1890s) Centre-right to right wing (1890s-1951) |
| Colours | Blue |
The Liberal Party (Weranian: Liberale Partei) was a political party in Werania that dominated the country from the conclusion of Weranian Unification to the end of the Prachtvolle Epoche. Founded as the party of liberalism the Liberal Party would initially be the middle ground between the conservative royalists and the radical republicans being seen as supportive of constitutional monarchism and Weranian nationalism. Liberals would come to be the largest party in Weranian politics representing the interests of the emerging middle class, in particular the bildungsbürgertum. Although dominant in government over time the Liberals would become deeply split between its right wing representing national liberalism and its left wing representing classical radicalism. The division between the two led to the party to split in the 1890s with the left-wing joining republicans to form the Radical Party whilst the right wing remained. The Liberals became an organised political party in 1902 but soon declined electorally to the Radicals, the Catholic Social Party and the Weranic Section of the Workers' International no longer leading a government after 1903.
The Liberals by this point had become an entirely right-wing party seeing itself as a primarily "liberal" rather then "democratic" force. Supported by the reactionary upper middle class and big business the Liberals would enter right-wing and centrist governments being a participant in the "Five Party Alliance" that governed the country from 1924 to 1942. The Liberals would continue to participate in government during the right-wing "National Bloc" administration that governed from 1942 to 1950. Following the Valduvian-Weranian War the Liberals left government being reduced to a marginal force. The Liberals would unite with the Catholics to form the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Werania in 1951, one of the forerunners of the National Consolidation Party.
History
Origins
Following Bloody Summer and the promulgation of a constitutional monarchy in the Kingdom of Cislania politics in Cislania became divided between conservative monarchists and liberal nationalists, the latter of whom wished to unite all the Weranic-speaking lands. The more radical of these wanted to restore the Weranian Republic whilst the more moderate believed in achieving unification under the Cislanian king. These moderates became known as the "liberals" in the Cislanian legislature despite their ideological heterogeneity with some being opposed to liberalism whilst advocating Weranian nationalism whilst conversely the rival monarchist bloc included liberals who opposed Weranian nationalism.
After the failed revolution in 1828 the liberal bloc in the Cislanian legislature came under the influence of Ulrich von Bayrhoffer, a staunch Weranian nationalist who pressed for an expansionist policy to unify the Weranian lands under Cislanian control. Von Bayrhoffer was a moderate conservative but aligned with the liberals in order to fulfil his nationalist goals implementing liberal goals such as free trade and civil liberties in order to secure their support. Von Bayrhoffer ensured that the liberals with their political powerbases in Wiesstadt, northwest Cislania and the Neeves were overrepresented in the Cislanian voting system comparative to his conservative opponents who dominated the rural west. The Cislanian liberals supported free trade, constitutional monarchism, secularism and Weranian nationalism being supported by a coalition of reformist nobles, Amendists and the middle class in particular the bildungsbürgertum. Following the conclusion of Weranian Unification in 1842 the Cislanian liberals became the largest party in the newly formed Bundestag of Werania?Bundestag absorbing the liberal movements of other kingdoms, in particular the Bonnlitzer liberals who wished to continue the policies of the Scoverne Pileads. As a result the pro-government moderate bloc in the Bundestag became increasingly referred to as the "Liberal Party".