Libertarian Party (Venadia)
| Libertarian Party | |
|---|---|
| File:Venadialibertarian.png | |
| Native Name | Либертарианская Партия |
| Leader | Friedrich Krüger |
| Founded | October, 2009 |
| Headquarters | Venagorod, Venadia |
| Membership | 12,403 2015 |
| Ideology | Libertarianism Laissez-faire Capitalism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Official colours | Yellow |
| Great Veche | 0 / 400
|
| Website | http://www.libertarianstvo.vda |
The Libertarian Party (Venadian: Либертарианская Партия, transcript: Libertarianskaya Partiya) is a minor political party in Venadia with some local representation. The party is relatively new in Venadian politics, having been formed in 2009. The party has contested two national elections and one local election since its formation, and have local representation in Viniya. The party was formed by students at the Proylopol State University who had grown disillusioned with existing liberal alternatives in Venadia. The party was initially limited to southern Venadia, but during the course of 2011 have managed to expand, now having active parties in Proylopol Volost, Someria, Viniya, Venagorod, Khandagrad, the Jewish Volost, Kirolozhsk, the Liga Volost, Kamerod, Naskoslav and Yelevichi. Following the 2013 local elections, the party managed to gain local representatives in two Gorods in Viniya.
History
The party was founded by a group of thirty-one students at Proylopol State University in 2009, all but five of the students being former member of the Liberal-Republican Party's student association. The party rapidly gained traction in other universities and got a backbone of support among right-wing individuals in the Proylopol Red Ward. By 2011, the party had a membership of more than two thousand, and managed to enter the Venadian 2011 Parliamentary Election as a political party, gaining party list votes 26,890 votes (0.03% of the national vote). The party also contested three constituencies, gaining a total of 8,478 votes (their highest result being in the Proylopol Gorod, where they got 0.9%).
The early years of the party was marked by conflict with other political groups, particularly the anarcho-communist Apalkovist Union and the right-wing Democratic Party.
While the party's structure had been an ad-hoc affair, largely inspired by Vesan libertarian ideals as represented by the Vesan Liberal Party. The 2012 National Congress of the Libertarian Party saw it agree on a distinct ideology and elected the party chairman Friedrich Krüger, a Somerian lawyer. Krüger managed to lead the party outside of the confines of university campuses, the middle-aged and well-spoken Krüger giving the Libertarian Party more legitimacy to the bulk of voters. The party membership increased, and by 2015 the Libertarian Party counts more than 12 thousand members in 27 of Venadia's districts, with 11 having active party cells.
The party managed to gain a total of 112,583 votes in the district elections in 2013, contesting nine districts. The party gained a total of five local representatives, in two of Viniya's gorods, giving the Libertarian Party their first elected representatives. In the Venadian 2015 Parliamentary Election the Libertarian Party gained party-list 242,326 votes (0.30% of the votes), and 221,753 constituency votes spread over 47 constituencies. Their best result was in Blaustadt, where party leader Friedrich Krüger managed to gain 56,333 votes (13.7%).
The party has continued to grow in 2016, and have made attempts to establish relations with the Liberal Party and other Ardanian libertarian political parties, although with little to no success in establishing recognition as a sister party.
Policies
- Transition of the economy into laissez-faire capitalism through privatization of all state-enterprises outside of law and order, some infrastructure and the military, as well as abolishing most of Venadia's business regulations.
- Legalization of gay marriage and same-sex civil partnerships granting identical benefits to opposite-sex partnership.
- Abolishment of all taxes existing taxes in favour of a small sales tax to fund the state.
- Abolishment of aristocratic privileges.
- Abolishment of conscription in favour of a fully professional military.
- Non-interventionist foreign policy.
- Implementing a federal system of government, with the federal government's main duties involving national defence and the preservation of individual rights and freedoms.
Electorate
The Libertarian Party's electorate in its first years largely was limited to students, but the party has successfully managed to appeal to other groups. The party's membership and prime electorate now comes from the lower-middle class, mostly educated and secular. The party largely gains their support from ethnic Venadians, with Somer Germans being the only minority ethnicity the party has so far managed to gain much in the way of support from, largely attributed to the personal popularity of Friedrich Krüger in Someria.