Libertas.eu | |
---|---|
President | Declan Ganley |
Founded | 30 October 2008 [1] [nb 1] |
Dissolved | September 2010 [2] |
Headquarters | Registered at Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway, Ireland [nb 1] [1] [3] European offices on 7th Floor, Avenue de Cortenbergh 71, Brussels 1000, Belgium [4] |
Ideology | Anti-Lisbon Treaty |
European Parliament group | Europe of Freedom and Democracy |
Colours | Blue, gold |
Website | |
www.libertas.eu | |
Libertas was a pan-European political party founded by Declan Ganley that took part in the 2009 European Parliament election in several member states of the European Union. It won one seat in France.
In 2008, the Libertas Institute Limited, a lobby group founded by Declan Ganley and others, advocated a "no" vote in Lisbon I, the 2008 referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon. Lisbon I failed. The referendum was held on 12 June 2008 [5] and defeated by 53.4% to 46.6%, with a turnout of 53.1%. [6]
Libertas held a post-referendum celebration in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on the night of Friday, 13 June 2008. [7] Attending that celebration was Danish Eurosceptic [8] and former President of the EUDemocrats [9] and recently retired [10] MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, [7] who had been a "no" campaigner during the referendum. [7] Bonde was later cited as one of the main architects of the upgrading of Libertas to a political party at European level. [11] [12]
On 15 July 2008, RTÉ News on Two covered Ganley's comments at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he stated that Libertas intended running as a political party at European level. The next day Ganley confirmed that Libertas was fundraising in order to run candidates throughout Europe in the 2009 European Parliament elections. [13]
On 20 September 2008, The Irish Times reported [14] that Bonde and Czech president Václav Klaus pledged to help Ganley to launch Libertas. The two were later amongst the guests at a dinner hosted by Ganley at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin on 11 November 2008. [15]
On 30 October 2008, Ganley registered a company based in Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway [nb 1] [1] [3] called the Libertas Party Limited. [16] [nb 1] [1] [3] The Irish Times reported that the new party was intended to "carry on the business of a European political party". [16] The party was publicly announced in December 2008 [17] with ambitions to field up to 400 [17] candidates and win seats in all 27 [17] EU member states.
In early 2009 Libertas applied to be recognised by the European Parliament as a political party at European level. The application was briefly successful but then suspended indefinitely amidst controversy.
Ganley then travelled around Europe to set up Libertas lists and parties for the 2009 European Parliament election. [18] In November 2008 Libertas opened its Brussels office. [19] Libertas launched in France on 12 February 2009, [20] the Netherlands on 15 April, [21] followed by several other European Union member states. [22] On 1 May 2009, Libertas held its first pan-European party convention in Rome [23] in time for the European Parliament elections in June, when it fielded hundreds of candidates for election. [22]
In Austria, Libertas was rejected by both Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) as well as by the independent Hans-Peter Martin. Martin announced after talks and serious considerations, that he would rather remain independent, [24] which he successfully did. FPÖ harshly rebuffed Ganley's advances associating his activism with an alleged American conspiracy. [25] The initially noncommital BZÖ [24] later also declined, preferring a loose cooperation in the European Parliament. [26]
An electoral list called "Libertas: Free Citizens" (Bulgarian : Либертас: Свободните граждани) was formed by some 30 national and local Non-governmental organizations. [27] Pavel Chernev's Freedom Party that had announced to join the list was repudiated by Libertas. However, the submitted list was later rejected by the Bulgarian electoral commission. [28] An appeal filed by Nikolay Bliznakov was turned down by Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court on the grounds that the list had not proven the required deposit had not given the names of its constituent parties. [29] In the meantime, Bulgarian businessman Hristo Atanassov founded a party under the name Libertas Bulgaria which has no connection to the pan-European Libertas network.
Right after the preliminary rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland, Declan Ganley, founder of the European Libertas.eu, was guest of Czech President Václav Klaus [30] The Czech eStat.cz civic group had ambitions to replicate Libertas's success [31] and awarded the Irish electorate the Michal Tošovský Prize, [32] picked up by Ganley in Prague on 5 November 2008. [30] During his stay in Ireland after a state visit, Klaus visited Ganley in a private capacity and later attended the Shelbourne Hotel dinner given by Ganley for leading Eurosceptics. [33]
However, Ganley's Libertas was later rejected [34] [35] [36] by the new Czech Eurosceptic party, Petr Mach's Party of Free Citizens, which was endorsed by Klaus. Additionally, the Ganley-disavowed new Czech Eurosceptic party by Vladimír Železný usurped the Libertas brand by registering itself as Libertas.cz. Ganley's Libertas later claimed Železný's Libertas as an affiliate. [37]
After Manolis Kalligiannis (Greek : Μανώλης Καλλιγιάννης), President of the Greek Liberal Party had attended Libertas.eu's Rome convention on 1 May 2009. [38] Manolis Kalligiannis (Μανώλης Καλλιγιάννης, sometimes rendered in English as Emmanuel Kalligiannis), Liberal Party run for the 2009 European parliament election under a Libertas-affiliated list with the name "Κόμμα Φιλελευθέρων – Libertas.eu". [39]
In Hungary, Libertas.eu searched for candidates in an Internet ad [40] and Károly Lóránt was appointed the Hungarian representative. However, as Hungarian concerns that a disorganized EU would only serve Russian strategic interests could not be dissipated, no list was fielded on behalf of Libertas.
Libertas.eu announced talks with the Pole of Autonomy coalition on 30 April 2009, the day before its Rome convention, [41] which were confirmed the next day by Teodoro Buontempo, the president of The Right. [42] However, in the final candidate lists submitted in May, no candidates were fielded by Libertas.eu, [43] neither did the Pole of Autonomy list refer to Libertas. [44]
Ganley arrived in Vilnius on Tuesday 3 March 2009 [45] to discuss terms with prospective candidates, and explore whether to establish a new Libertas party in Lithuania or change the name of an existing Lithuanian party. [45] He did so again on Monday 24 March 2009 at a lecture at Vilnius University's Institute of International Relations and Political Science (IIRPS, or VU Tarptautinių Santykių ir Politikos Mokslų Institutas, VU TSPMI). [46]
On 31 March 2008, Libertas Lithuania gave a press conference. [47] [48] [49] Attendees at the press conference were Ganley, lawyer Eugenija Sutkienė , political analyst and Lithuanian presidential advisor Lauras Bielinis, and Tautos Prisikėlimo Partija representative Saulius Stoma . [49]
In that press conference it was announced that the Libertas Lithuanian list would be headed by Sutkiene [47] and would include Bielinis, [47] and that candidates from the Tautos Prisikėlimo Partija would stand with them under a common list, [47] [48] although Ganley and Stoma disagreed whether other parties would join them under that list. [48] When asked if he had read the Lisbon Treaty, Bielinis demurred. [48] [49] When asked about Libertas Lithuania's funding, Ganley demurred. [48] [49]
Bielinis planned to remain in his presidential advisory post until 7 May 2009 and take unpaid leave thereafter. [48] Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus disagreed and announced Bielinis' resignation the next day, 1 April 2009. [50]
When the lists were published, neither Bielinis nor Sutkiene were on Tautos Prisikėlimo Partija's list. [51] [52] When Libertas named their finalised candidates in May 2009, they did not include any candidates in Lithuania, [43] and the Tautos Prisikėlimo Partija website contained no pledge of allegiance to Libertas. [53]
In April 2009, the Portuguese ecologist Earth Party (MPT) announced in a joint press conference with Ganley that it would run for the 2009 European Parliament election with an open electoral list under the banner of Libertas.eu. [54]
While the vice-president of the EUDemocrats, Peter Kopecký had already announced the foundation of a Libertas Slovensko branch, [55] he changed his mind in late February and decided to head the list of the small, but already established Agrarian and Countryside Party. [56] Ganley had to look out to other options and met in Bratislava with leaders of the conservative parties KDS and OKS, and with Richard Sulík, the founder of the new (Sloboda a Solidarita). While Sulík, whom Ganley had already contacted before, still didn't show much interest, Vladimír Palko (KDS) agreed to bring in their joint list with OKS into the European network. [57] [58] However, as the two partys didn't want to give up their distinct identities, they used Libertas only as supplementary brand. [59]
Libertas fielded over 600 candidates (including substitutes), but only one was elected: Phillippe de Villiers. [60] Although Ganley himself polled a respectable number of votes, it was not enough for him to take a seat in his constituency. Ganley requested a recount of his personal vote but still lost. [60] [61] Having made the promise to do so before the election, Ganley retired from politics following his defeat on 8 June 2009: [60] [61] the fate of the party he founded, chaired, owned and governed was left to others. [60] However, the affiliated Libertas Institute did emerge again in the Republic of Ireland when the Irish government launched its re-run of the Lisbon Treaty, despite its defeat the previous year. The Libertas party, along with the other minority political groupings, such as the Socialist Party and Sinn Féin, which opposed the European Constitutional Amending Bill, were outspent and outperformed by the political proponents of the bill who won by a substantial majority. Declan Ganley went on to praise the Irish Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, on 'what was, politically, a masterful campaign...from a masterful politician who has made glove puppets out of the opposition' [62] although Ganley also cited recent economic turmoil in the country as a major deciding factor in the vote.
Name | Position | Notes |
---|---|---|
Declan Ganley | Chairman | Unelected |
Jens-Peter Bonde | Brussels Office Manager | |
Joe Trippi [63] | Electoral consultant | American Democratic campaign consultant. [63] Worked on the presidential campaigns of Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Gary Hart, Dick Gephardt, and John Edwards. |
Lynton Crosby [64] | Electoral consultant | Australian campaign consultant. [64] Worked on the election campaigns of John Howard, Michael Howard, and Boris Johnson. |
Anita Kelly [65] [66] [67] | Spokesperson | |
John McGuirk [68] | Spokesperson | Was named as a Libertas spokesperson in Slovakia in February 2009. [68] |
Libertas's intended structure evolved with time. It was originally intended to be an alliance of national parties, but it was later envisaged as a single pan-European party with candidates running as individual members of Libertas. By the end of April 2009, Libertas's structure had settled into a loose association of national member parties (either new or pre-existing), with each member party adhering to a set of core principles (see below) but retaining its independence and adding on additional policies as it felt appropriate. [69]
For the purposes of contending the 2009 European Parliament elections, Libertas candidates ran under lists (the lists of candidates presented to voters in a European election) branded with the Libertas identity, as exemplified by the French approach. [20] [70] Each list was made up of some combination of the following:
New national member parties established by Libertas had names in the "Libertas X" format, e.g. "Libertas Sweden" [71] (except in the UK). [nb 2] Pre-existing national member parties were asked to change their names to include the word "Libertas" in the title. [45] Members of member parties were members of Libertas automatically unless they chose otherwise.
Affiliate parties retained their original names. [72] [73] Members of affiliate parties were not members of Libertas unless they chose to join as individuals.
Ganley stated that following a group conference in Rome in March 2009, (later postponed to 1 May 2009) [74] Libertas would publish a policy document or party manifesto. covering areas such as democracy, the economy, small businesses, the recession, and EU institution accountability. [75]
No formal manifesto was published at the convention. [76] Instead, Libertas's core principles were displayed on its website [77] and reiterated at its convention, [76] namely accountability, transparency, democracy and rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. Each member party and individual member was obliged to adhere to these core principles, [69] although they could add additional policies as they felt appropriate. [76] Affiliate parties were not obliged to so adhere.
The core principles were given concrete form when Libertas published the following policies on its website: [78]
Member parties were members of Libertas.eu. Members of member parties were automatically members of Libertas.eu unless they chose otherwise.
Affiliate parties were not members of Libertas.eu but cooperated with it electorally under Libertas lists. Members of affiliate parties were not members of Libertas.eu unless they chose to join as individuals.
Individual members were people who chose to join Libertas.eu as individuals. People with no national party membership who were running under a Libertas list were automatically individual members.
Libertas didn't manage to present electoral lists in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Romania and Sweden. In the other European countries, the candidates on Libertas.eu's lists were either members of member parties, members of affiliate parties, or individual members.
Member state | Libertas list | Number of seats contested 4–7 June 2009 | Elected candidates 8 June 2009 |
---|---|---|---|
Czech Republic | Libertas (Czech Republic) | 29 [43] | 0 [97] |
Estonia | Libertas Estonia | 6 [43] | 0 [98] |
France | Libertas France | 147 [43] | 1 [99] |
Germany | Libertas Germany | 11 [100] [nb 4] | 0 [101] |
Greece | Libertas Greece | 22 [43] | 0 [102] |
Ireland | Libertas Ireland | 3 [43] | 0 [103] |
Latvia | Libertas Latvia | 8 [43] | 0 [104] |
Malta | Libertas Malta | 1 [43] | 0 [105] |
Netherlands | Libertas Netherlands | 24 [43] | 0 [106] |
Poland | Libertas Poland | 128 [43] [nb 5] | 0 [107] |
Portugal | Libertas Portugal | 22 [43] | 0 [108] |
Slovakia | Libertas Slovakia | 13 [43] | 0 [109] |
Spain | Libertas Spain | 50 [43] | 0 [110] |
United Kingdom | Libertas United Kingdom | 56 [43] [nb 6] | 0 [111] |
Libertas was registered at Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway along with other organisations associated with Libertas and/or Declan Ganley. [112] [113] [114] [115] [116] [117] A list of organizations associated with Libertas.eu and/or Declan Ganley is given here.
Independence/Democracy (IND/DEM) was a Eurosceptic political group active during the 2004–2009 term of the European Parliament. The group was the successor to the Europe of Democracies and Diversities (EDD) group.
The Movement for France was a conservative, soft Eurosceptic and Gaullist French political party, founded on 20 November 1994, with a marked regional stronghold in the Vendée. It was led by Philippe de Villiers, once communications minister under Jacques Chirac.
The Earth Party, previously called The Earth Party Movement, is a green-conservative political party in Portugal, founded on 12 August 1993. Its main political priorities are the promotion of environmental-friendly policies and the preservation of the national and cultural heritage of Portugal and of the remaining Portuguese-language countries.
The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history. An additional 18 observers were pre-elected.
Declan James Ganley is an English-born Irish entrepreneur, businessman, and political activist. He was the founder and leader of the Irish branch of the Libertas Party.
A European political foundation, formally a political foundation at European level, informally a Eurofoundation, is a research and advocacy organization close to, but independent from a Europarty. They are funded by the European Parliament. Their purpose is to act as platforms aiming at developing forward-looking ideas and concepts for their respective political family and providing a forum where those ideas can be widely debated. There are nine Eurofoundations as of 16 March 2009.
Libertas Poland was a political party in Poland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas Party Limited, the organization founded by Declan Ganley.
Libertas France is the name given to the activities of Declan Ganley's Libertas Party in France. Unlike Libertas in other countries, Libertas France was not a political party in its own right. Instead, candidates from Mouvement pour la France (MPF) and Chasse, Pêche, Nature et Traditions (CPNT) contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in France under common lists branded with the Libertas identity. The candidates retained their membership of their national parties and the national parties retained their legal identity.
Libertas UK may refer to three political parties in the United Kingdom: two are regional affiliates of Declan Ganley's Libertas Party Limited, one of which, Pro-Democracy: Libertas.eu, contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas Party Limited. The third was formed by an associate of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
Libertas Sweden is a political party in Sweden. It intended to contend the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Declan Ganley's Libertas.eu.
Libertas Ireland was a political party in Ireland. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Ireland under a common banner with Declan Ganley's Libertas.eu. It shared a headquarters with Libertas.eu but was a national party in its own right for the purposes of Irish electoral law.
Libertas.cz is a eurosceptic party in the Czech Republic that was founded in 2009 by the former media entrepreneur and MEP Vladimír Železný. After some controversies it became an associate of Declan Ganley's pan-European alliance Libertas.eu.
Libertas Malta was a political party in Malta set up to contest the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas.eu. Its only candidate Mary Gauci failed to be elected and the party has been inactive since.
Libertas Netherlands is a political party in the Netherlands. It contended the 2009 European Parliament elections under a common banner with Libertas Party Limited, the organization founded by Declan Ganley.
Responsibility – Social Democratic Alliance of Political Parties was a political coalition in Latvia, until 2010 called Libertas.lv, which was the local branch of Declan Ganley's Libertas Party. Unlike Libertas in other countries, Libertas Latvia was not a political party in its own right. Instead, candidates from Mūsu Zeme, Sociālā Taisnīguma Partija and Latvijas Atmoda contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Latvia under common lists branded with the Libertas identity. The candidates retained their membership of their national parties and the national parties retained their legal identity.
Libertas Spain is the name given to the activities of Declan Ganley's Libertas.eu in Spain. Unlike Libertas in other countries, Libertas Spain was not a political party in its own right. Instead, candidates with no national party affiliation and candidates from Citizens – Party of the Citizenry, Partido Social Demócrata and Unión del Pueblo Salmantino contended the 2009 European Parliament elections in Spain under a common list branded with the Libertas identity. The candidates retained their membership of their national parties and the national parties retained their legal identity.
The political positions of Libertas were the political positions of members or affiliates of Libertas, the umbrella title given to a constellation of organizations associated with Declan Ganley. Candidates and parties underneath its pan-European arm, Libertas.eu contended the 2009 European Parliament elections.
The Libertas Institute is a lobby group that along with others successfully campaigned for a "no" vote in the 2008 referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon.
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