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.
Preamble
editLibertas is a political party founded by Declan Ganley that took part in the 2009 European Parliament election in several member states of the European Union. For the purposes of contending those 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.[1][2] Each list was made up of some combination of the following:
- members of member parties (member parties usually had names in the Libertas X format e.g. "Libertas Sweden"[3])
- members of affiliate parties (parties that were not members of Libertas.eu but cooperate with it electorally)
- individual members (people who chose to join Libertas.eu as individuals. Candidates that ran under Libertas lists but who had no national party membership were automatically individual members).
Their political positions were as follows:
EUProfiler
editThe EUProfiler was produced by a consortium of three institutions (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Kieskompas and the University of Zurich)[4] analysing parties taking part in the 2009 elections. Some of those parties were Libertas. A summary of their analyses is given below.
Hix-Lord diagram
edit
The EUProfiler gave the positions of political parties on the left-right and Eurosceptic spectra. Six of those parties were Libertas parties. They were as follows:
- Libertas Ireland (LI), Libertas's member party in Ireland
- Mouvement pour la France (MPF), a Libertas affiliate in France
- Chasse, Peche, Nature, Traditions (CPNT), a Libertas affiliate in France
- Libertas Poland (LP), Libertas's member party in Poland[nb 1]
- Partido da Terra (MPT), a Libertas affiliate in Portugal
- Ciudadanos-Partido de la Ciudadanía (C), a Libertas affiliate in Spain
Those positions are summarized on the Hix-Lord diagram (a type of political compass) on the right. The Eurosceptic parties are towards the bottom, Europhile parties towards the top, the left-wing parties are towards the left, and right-wing parties towards the right.
Profile
editThe EUProfiler also collated party statements into their positions on distinct questions. A summary of those collations for the six Libertas parties analysed is as follows:
| Category | Question | LI | CPNT | MPF | LP | MPT | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finances and taxes | The EU should acquire its own tax raising powers | Completely disagree | Tend to disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Tend to disagree | Completely disagree |
| Economy and work | The EU should drastically reduce its subsidies to Europe's farmers | Tend to disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Tend to agree |
| European integration | The European Union should be enlarged to include Turkey | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | No opinion | No opinion |
| Society, religion and culture | Euthanasia should be legalised | Completely disagree | No opinion | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Tend to agree |
| European integration | Individual member states of the EU should have less veto power | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | No opinion | Tend to agree |
| Society, religion and culture | The legalisation of same sex marriages is a good thing | Completely disagree | No opinion | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | No opinion | Tend to agree |
| Welfare, family and health | Greater efforts should be made to privatise healthcare services in your member state | No opinion | Tend to disagree | No opinion | Neutral | Tend to disagree | Completely disagree |
| Migration and immigration | Immigration policies oriented towards skilled workers should be encouraged as a means of fostering economic growth | Tend to disagree | No opinion | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Neutral | Tend to agree |
| Foreign policy | On foreign policy issues, such as the relationship with Russia, the EU should speak with one voice | Neutral | No opinion | Completely disagree | Tend to disagree | Tend to disagree | No opinion |
| Society, religion and culture | The decriminalisation of the personal use of soft drugs is to be welcomed | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Tend to agree |
| Finances and taxes | Governments should bail out failing banks with public money | No opinion | Tend to disagree | Completely agree | Completely disagree | No opinion | Tend to disagree |
| European integration | European integration is a good thing | Tend to agree | Completely disagree | Completely disagree | Neutral | No opinion | Tend to agree |
| Environment, transport and energy | The promotion of public transport should be fostered through green taxes (e.g. road taxing) | No opinion | Completely disagree | No opinion | No opinion | Tend to agree | Neutral |
| Law and order | Restrictions of civil liberties should be accepted in the fight against terrorism | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | Tend to disagree |
| Foreign policy | The European Union should strengthen its security and defence policy | No opinion | No opinion | Neutral | No opinion | Tend to disagree | No opinion |
| Finances and taxes | Government spending should be reduced in order to lower taxes | No opinion | No opinion | Completely agree | No opinion | Tend to disagree | Tend to disagree |
| Economy and work | Governments should reduce workers' protection regulations in order to fight unemployment | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | No opinion | Neutral |
| Environment, transport and energy | Policies to fight global warming should be encouraged even if it hampers economic growth or employment | No opinion | Tend to agree | No opinion | Completely disagree | Tend to agree | Neutral |
| Environment, transport and energy | Renewable sources of energy (e.g. solar or wind energy) should be supported even if this means higher energy costs | No opinion | Tend to disagree | Tend to agree | Completely disagree | Completely agree | Tend to agree |
| European integration | Your member state is much better off in the EU than outside it | Tend to agree | Tend to agree | Completely disagree | Tend to disagree | No opinion | Completely agree |
| Welfare, family and health | Social programmes should be maintained even at the cost of higher taxes | No opinion | Tend to agree | Completely disagree | Neutral | Completely agree | Tend to agree |
| Society, religion and culture | Religious values and principles should be shown greater respect in politics | Completely agree | Tend to disagree | Tend to agree | Completely agree | No opinion | Completely disagree |
| European integration | The European Parliament should be given more powers | Tend to agree | Completely agree | No opinion | Tend to agree | Tend to disagree | Neutral |
| Law and order | Criminals should be punished more severely | No opinion | Neutral | Completely agree | Completely agree | No opinion | Tend to agree |
| Migration and immigration | Immigrants from outside Europe should be required to accept our culture and values | Tend to agree | No opinion | Completely agree | Completely agree | No opinion | Tend to agree |
| Welfare, family and health | State subsidies for crèches and child care should be increased substantially | No opinion | Completely agree | Tend to agree | Completely agree | Tend to agree | Completely agree |
| Migration and immigration | Immigration into your member state should be made more restrictive | Completely agree | Completely agree | Completely agree | Tend to agree | Neutral | Tend to agree |
| European integration | Any new European Treaty should be subject to approval in a referendum in your member state | Completely agree | Completely agree | Completely agree | Completely agree | Completely agree | Completely agree |
| Sources | [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5] | [6] | |
CPDS
editThe University of Bern Institute for Political Science (Universität Bern, Institut für Politikwissenschaft) maintains comparative political datasets CPDS I,II and III classifying political parties from the OECD and EU into distinct political families. Two of those parties were Libertas parties. The CPDS characterized those parties as follows:
| Libertas member/affiliate | Political family | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| League of Polish Families | Religious | [7][permanent dead link] |
| Komma Fileftheron | Liberal | [8][permanent dead link] |
Human rights monitors
editThe Anti-Defamation League, United Nations, and Council of Europe monitor parties for use of racist, xenophobic and/or anti-Semitic discourse. Two of those parties were Libertas parties. They are as follows:
| Libertas member/affiliate | Sources |
|---|---|
| League of Polish Families | [9][10][11][permanent dead link] |
| Mouvement pour la France | [12][13][permanent dead link] |
Left-right positions
editThe Oscarsson and Dahlberg paper "Mapping the European Party Space: Does Party System Simplicity produce Democratic Legitimacy?"[permanent dead link] characterized parties on the left-right spectrum. Three of those parties were Libertas parties. Oscarsson and Dahlberg characterized those parties as follows (data from 2004):
| Libertas member/affiliate | Score (0=extreme left, 10=extreme right) | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| League of Polish Families | 7.25 | [14][permanent dead link] |
| Komma Fileftheron | 6.27 | [15][permanent dead link] |
| Mouvement pour la France | 6.27 | [16][permanent dead link] |
Notes
edit- ^ "Libertas Poland" here refers to the party of that name in Poland, not to the Libertas list of the same name, a coalition of Libertas Poland with NP, PSL Piast, PR, LPF candidates
References
edit- ^ "Européennes : Frédéric Nihous et Philippe de Villiers feront campagne commune" Archived 2009-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, La Tribune, March 4, 2009, English translation here Archived 2017-05-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Villiers et Nihous pour un «protectionnisme européen»" Archived 2009-04-03 at the Wayback Machine, Le Figaro Archived 2004-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, 9 March 2009
- ^ "Hjälp Libertas bli ett registrerat parti" Archived 2009-02-27 at the Wayback Machine Thursday, 26 February 2009 from the Libertas website Archived June 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "EUProfiler:FAQ". Archived from the original on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2009-06-03.