Workers' Party (Azmara)
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Workers' Party Arbeiderpartii | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Sofija Anasdohter |
| Founded | September 22, 1925 |
| Merger of | Azmaran Section of the Workers' International National Association |
| Ideology | Social democracy Labourism Pro-Eucleanism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| International affiliation | Socialist Alternative for Euclea |
| Landsmot | 18 / 75
|
| Folksmot | 43 / 150
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| Province Presidents | 4 / 8
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The Workers' Party (Azmaran: Arbeiderpartii, pronounced [ɑɹbɛɪðɛɹpɑɹtiː]), also translated as the Labour Party, is a centre-left political party within Azmara.
The party was formed in 1925 as a merger of the Sotirian socialist National Association and the reformist factions of the council socialist Azmaran Section of the Workers' International. Both parties had governed together in coalition between 1921 and 1923, and merged to form a united opposition to the right-wing National Coalition government, becoming the official opposition and, along with the newly formed Radicals, became strict opponents of the collaborationism and authoritarianism of the government.
After being a major supporter of the 1932 General Strike which toppled the National Coalition and the withdrawal of Azmara from the Great War, the party won the 1933 elections and formed a coalition with the Radicals. This coalition would come to rule for the next two decades, implementing many progressive reforms which laid the groundwork of the modern Azmaran welfare state and bringing Azmara into both the United Nations of Euclea and the Euclean Community.
In the years since, the party has cemented itself as the natural governing party of Azmara, ruling for 57 out of 87 years between 1933 and 2020 and party leader Sofija Anasdohter currently serves as Thingspeaker of Azmara serving in a three-party coalition with the Radicals and the Greens, with the party having won 51 seats and 33.1% of the vote in the 2020 election.
History
Ideology and electorate
The party has traditionally described itself as a democratic socialist party, stating its goal to be the "emancipation of the Azmaran working class through the parliamentary process and the institutions of organised labour and co-operative enterprise". However, despite this ideological claim to democratic socialism, many political scientists have positioned the party as adhering to the Eastern Euclean tradition of social democracy, with many considering it one of the most successful parties within this tradition.
The party has traditionally been a champion of universalist welfare policies, full employment, compulsory negotiation between trade unions and employers and demand-side policies for dealing with economic recessions. However, this has changed over the course of the party's existence; the three Workers' Party governments of Herman Jonssun, Jorś Mâþijassun and Eleina Helmutsdohter between 1993 and 2005, for example, declared their support for "professional socialism", a more middle-class focused set of policies centred on social liberalism and an acceptance of free-market policies, opposing proposals for renationalisation and strengthening of union power in favour of comprehensive welfare measures, private-public co-operation, a focus on public services and heavy investment in national infrastructure.
In contrast to this, the party in its post-2009 state has been associated with a move back to leftism, with "old left" trade unionists Frei Alekssun and Marie Mellon leading the party between 2009 and 2015, and prominent socialist academic Eryk Jorśsun becoming party leader in 2015 and leading the party to its greatest electoral result since 1996 in the 2017 election, winning 56 seats and forming a left-wing coalition which pursued policies of renationalisation, strengthening of the unions and direct intervention in economically deprived areas. Current leader Sofija Anasdohter has also been considered part of the left of the party, albeit many have noted the contrast between her lack of a trade unionist background and focus on social progressivism to other figures on the left of the party.