Left Alliance (Alsland)

Left Alliance Links Alliânsje Vasakliit
Abbreviation	LADS/VLS
Leader	Olari Lippmaa Andrys de Graaf
Founded	22 March 2009 (2009-03-22)
Ideology	Democratic socialism Social democracy Anti-capitalism
Political position	Centre-left to left-wing
Members	See Composition
Colours	Red
Folkssenaat	51 / 201
Federal Council	15 / 96
Euclean Parliament	4 / 23
Website
www.linksaalslân.as
Political parties

The Left Alliance or United Left (Dellish: Links Alliânsje – Moderne populêre front, Martish: Vasakliit – Kaasaegne rahvarinne, lit. 'Left Alliance – Modern Popular Front', LADS/VLS) is a left-wing electoral alliance of political parties in Alsland. Founded in 2009, the alliance is composed of the Alslandic Section of the Workers' International (ASAY) and Social Democratic Party (SDAP) and historically also included the Green - Alternative Choice (GAK) which withdrew in 2010. The alliance currently occupies a plurality of seats in the Folkssenaat and placed first in the 2022 Alslandic legislative election 22.9% of the vote although the Alliance remained in opposition. The alliance is active within the Alslandic trade union system and is an advocate for union membership and workplace democracy.

A democratic socialist, pro-Eucleanist and social democratic alliance, LADS takes up the left-wing of the Folkssenaat. The alliance is active within the Alslandic trade union system and is an advocate for union membership, workplace democracy as well as progressive policies, the alliance supports a restrictive immigration policy as well as diplomatic neutrality. LADS takes an anti-austerity position on economics and is critical of the response to the Alslandic government-debt crisis. The alliance is led by Olari Lippmaa of ASAY and Andrys de Graaf of SDAP, the former of which was the alliance's candidate for Premier in 2022.

History

Formation

Former Premier of Alsland and ASAY leader Jabik Nieuwenhuis in 2009

The formation of a united left alliance had been attempted with varying degrees of success since 1990, the most successful and notable being the 2006 Plural Left Agreement between the Alslandic Section of the Workers' International (ASAY) and Social Democratic Party (SDAP) whereby the latter would support Jabik Nieuwenhuis as the former's candidate for Premier in exchange a formal agreement between the two parties was signed to cooperate either in government or in opposition. Historically ASAY and SDAP were ideologically opposed although since 2005 SDAP had moved considerably to the left which alienated the party's centrist factions in the process. The Plural Agreement saw the centrist faction break off from SDAP and found the Progressive Alliance. At the 2006 Alslandic legislative election, ASAY and SDAP won a combined 93 seats in the Folkssenaat which informally guaranteed that Nieuwenhuis would become Premier with the support of the Greens and Humanist Sotirian Union (HSU).

The subsequent 4 party coalition of Plural Left, Greens and HSU combined held a significant majority within the Folkssenaat and pursued a leftist which was moderated slightly by the SDAP and HSU who represented the moderate elements of the government. Simultaneously the government also took a centrist approach to social policy and after Holsteen recognised same-sex marriages instead of the federally recognised civil unions for same-sex couples between, the HSU having historically opposed any changes to the definition of marriage agreed to support a referendum on same-sex marriage in 2009 which was ultimately successful, the referendum was the first time a referendum had been held in Alsland on a non-constitutional issue and was opposed by the HSU.

Growing differences between the governing parties particularly the HSU under a new conservative leadership and the remaining leftist parties became more apparent publicly when the HSU signed a memorandum with the newly formed Liveable Alsland party under Liekele Ykema to stand joint candidates in local elections. In response the Greens, SDAP and ASAY founded the Socialist-Ecological coordination working group, the group initially tried reconciling the differences between the parties and investigate the potential for a merger between the three although this was dismissed by members of all three parties who supported retaining separate policies. Ahead of the 2009 Euclean Parliament election, the three parties announced a joint list of candidates with members from all three parties as well as ideologically aligned independents. The so-called joint list won the most seats at the election although was outnumbered by opposition parties from Alsland. Ahead of the 2010 Alslandic legislative election which was expected to be extremely competitive, the three parties agreed to the creation of the Left Alliance which would consist of equal representation for all three parties involved.

Ideology

Composition

Party			Ideology	Folkssenaat
Political parties
	Alslandic Section of the Workers' International (ASAY)		Socialism Councilism	34 / 201
	Social Democratic Workers Party (SDAP)		Social democracy	8 / 201
	GreenLeft (GL)		Eco-socialism Eco-feminism	0 / 201
	Uskuma (U)		Democratic socalism Left-wing populism	0 / 201
Trade Unions
	Alslandic Trade Union Federation (AFBF)		Trade union	N/A
	Democratic Federation of Alslandic Labour (DFAA)		Trade union	N/A
	National Federation of Agricultural Workers (NFLA)		Trade union	N/A
Organisations
	Confederation of Alslandic Women (KAF)		Women's rights	N/A
	Democratic Young Pioneers of Alsland (DJPA)		Youth movement	N/A
	Left Dawn (LD)		Youth movement	N/A
	General Union of Students (AUS)		Students' union	N/A
	National Federation of Cooperative Organisations (NFKO)		Cooperatism	N/A
	Progressive National Sotirian Congress (PNSK)		Sotirian left	N/A
Intent to affiliate
	Progressive Alliance (PA)		Progressivism Social liberalism	10 / 201
	Ilmuma (I)		LGBT rights	N/A

Merger

Currently the parties of the Left Alliance have both proposed merging themselves to lessen the division of the left in Alsland. The leaderships of both parties have supported a merger and a vote on merging has been approved at every ASAY conference since 2010, similarly support for merging is high in SDAP as well which voted to begin merger talks in 2013 and again in 2019. As of 2020 the two parties had launched the 'Vasak Conference' to discuss merging, talks surrounding a merger were put on hold following a poor preformance at the 2020 Presidential election but were revitalised after the coalition placed first at the 2022 legislative election. Political appointees by both parties to the Citizens' Assembly to write a new constitution sat together as the 'Socialist Contingent' within the assembly and functioned as a singular political entity. Ahead of the 2024 Euclean Parliament election both parties have signalled their intent to run as a joint anti-austerity and socialist force to contest the governing parties and to maximise support. Unlike the 2009 joint list, the members of the list would sit within a single parliamentary group which would be decided prior to the election.

In 2020, Oark Molenaar listed a series of agreed principles that the Vasak Conference had agreed upon to discuss a new party. Any joint party would remain a member of the Congress of the Workers' International. The youth wings of both parties would be merged into a new wing which would assume elements of both the Democratic Young Pioneers of Alsland of ASAY and Left Dawn of SDAP. The new party would have two co-leaders elected by the party membership and members of affiliated trade unions and wings. The party would be committed to preserving parliamentary democracy and the multi-party system in Alsland as well as Alslandic membership within the Euclean Community. The new proposed party would also be committed to preserving Alslandic neutrality and would campaign against membership of any external military pact.

Ahead of the 2023 Alslandic constitutional referendum the leaderships of both parties announced the creation of the 'Socialist Left Platform' to campaign for constitutional changes and to serve as the basis for any future merger.

A party motion to approve a merger within ASAY was voted down by members in 2024 by a wide margin, a similar motion was also opposed by the SDAP leadership shortly afterwards. This was partially due to the SDAP surging in popularity as well as opposition in both parties to potentially losing their ideological identities. After the rejections, both party leaderships announced they would seek to continue friendly and cooperative relations but would act more independently of one another whilst remaining within the Alliance. Shortly afterwards the Progressive Alliance signalled its intent to join Links to "solidify the Progressive and Reformist current of the left", the Alliance's intention to join was met warmly by the ASAY and SDAP leaderships.

Electoral results

Presidency

President of Alsland

Election year	Candidate	First round			Second round			Result
		Votes	%	Rank	Votes	%	Rank
2012	Daan Donker	1,937,442	32.11	1st	2,964,879	48.97	2nd	Lost
2016	Johanneske Geertsma	1,384,266	22.54	2nd	2,894,435	46.63	2nd	Lost
2020	Andrys de Graaf	659,272	10.81	5th	Supported Sjearp Groeneveld			Lost

Folkssenaat

Election	Folkssenaat					Rank	Government	Candidate
	Votes	%	±pp	Seats won	+/−
2010A	TBD,TBD	TB.D%	–TB.D	83 / 201	14	1st	Opposition	Jabik Nieuwenhuis
2014	TBD,TBD	TB.D%	–TB.D	60 / 201	13	2nd	Opposition	Daan Donker
2018	TBD,TBD	TB.D%	–TB.D	27 / 201	33	4th	Opposition	Sjouke Wijngaarden
2022	1,537,577	22.9%	+8.7	42 / 201	15	1st	Opposition	Olari Lippmaa

^A 2010 results are compared to the Plural Left totals in the 2006 election.