Liberal Democratic Party of Kalșeri

 

Liberal Democratic Party Hișeaton-Gifoiuséaton Eri
Chairperson	Élena Kunar (KL)
Spokesperson	Anne-Marie Gosselin, Esq. (CI; Senate) Hon. Ashley Moriarty (LN; House)
Slogan	For a sensible country
Founded	June 27, 1959 (1959-06-27)
Preceded by	Liberal Republican Party Christian Democratic Party
Headquarters	15 Sellers-Casey Avenue, Tașarél, Evalria
Newspaper	The Liberal
Student wing	Liberal Democratic Students' Union
Youth wing	ldp 2.0
Membership  (2018)	403,000
Ideology	Classical liberalism Federalism Fiscal conservatism Liberal conservatism
International affiliation	Centrist Democrat International Liberal International
Official colors	Blue (official) Gold (additional)
Senate	11 / 42
House of Reps	69 / 200
Governorships	9 / 14 a
Cantonal seats	149 / 531
Election symbol
D A blue fox, traditional mascot of the party.
Website
libdems.kl
a Does not count alliances with other parties.

The Liberal Democratic Party (Kalhan: Hișeaton-Gifoiuséaton Eri, commonly known as the LibDems or Blues) is a centrist political party in Kalșeri. It currently holds a relative majority of seats in the Senate, and has the highest number of Representatives.

Founded in 1783 as the Liberal Republican Party (also known as the Kalhanseri Party), itself derived from the Hișon Vionia movement that brought Kalșeri to its independence, it was one of the two main political forces in Kalșeri, with the other one being the social democratic Kalhan Front. The current incarnation of the Party was born on June 27, 1959, with the merger of the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Republicans. From independence to 1977, the alternation between the Social Cooperation Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (and its past incarnations) regularly took place; this changed when the SCP was ousted from power, as part of the investigations around the Lockheed scandal; this started a twenty-seven year period where the Liberal Democrats regularly bested the SCP in many elections and won five out of the six presidential elections between 1979 and 1999.

The party advocates classical liberalism, fiscal conservatism, federalism and a smaller role of the state in the national economy. Some LibDems are ideologically closer to conservatism, whereas others embrace social liberalism.

Party positions

Economic policy

• Support the free market and gradually withdraw unnecessary government interference
• Establish a "sensible taxing" program
• Streamline economic regulation laws
• Allow private alternatives to offer the same services offered by the state
• Offer "sensible ideas for environmental regulations"

Social policy

• Allow individual cantons to pass their own legislation regarding LGBT rights
• Introduce legislation that penalizes online hate crimes
• Establish a nationwide recycling program
• Let cantons keep their own school curricula
• Let cantons decide whether to have religion as a mandatory subject in schools

Foreign policy

• Support Kalșerian membership in the NATO

Factions

The Liberal Democratic Party is divided into unofficial factions, which are generally named after their most prominent representative. The nuances in the values adopted by each group, as well as the presence of sub-factions, make identification of exact ideologies difficult.

Berschleider faction

Named after President John Berschleider, the Berschleider faction is a proponent of Christian democratic and economically moderate policies, with an emphasis on achieving a higher accessibility to public services.

Political scientist Vince Mundell argues that until the formation of the Republican Party, this faction was further divided into the "Pure Berschleiderists" and the "Berschleider-Ríos Soriano subfaction", the latter of which was more openly socially conservative.

Garner faction

The Garner faction, named after President Phil Garner, upholds cantonal rights in face of intervention of the central government in local policies, and advocates for privatization of publicly-owned companies and avoiding the increase in taxes as much as possible. In regards to social issues, this faction is closer to the Social Cooperation Party.

This group is sometimes called "Garner-Babich", after prominent Senator and current President Jim Babich.

Lorenzetti-Wilson faction

Often described as communitarian, the Lorenzetti-Wilson faction advocates for greater state intervention in economy and the promotion of social rights in a socially moderate agenda.

It is named after Representatives Penny Lorenzetti and Al Wilson.

Chairpeople

Name	Born	Died (if applicable)	Nomination	End of term
Michael Chalmers	(1915-07-09)July 9, 1915 Treetoor, NK	June 6, 1976(1976-06-06) (aged 60) Percy, KL	July 20, 1959	May 9, 1976
Eberardus Rigi	(1921-10-21)October 21, 1921 Evalria	August 29, 1992(1992-08-29) (aged 70) Evalria	May 16, 1976	March 7, 1984
Richard Molyneux	(1942-03-14)March 14, 1942 Land's End, KL	February 24, 2013(2013-02-24) (aged 70) Percy, KL	March 7, 1984	September 13, 1989
Iolanda Barbarino	(1944-07-23) July 23, 1944 Calvera, Italy	living	September 13, 1989	March 7, 1996
Roderick E. Carver	(1949-10-02) October 2, 1949 Cape Scorpion, TG	living	March 7, 1996	March 7, 2008
Edwin Lenders	(1951-05-19) May 19, 1951 Evalria	living	March 7, 2008	November 1, 2009
Alan Parr	(1959-09-13) September 13, 1959 Cape Sundervale	living	November 5, 2009	October 1, 2019
Simon Harris	(1973-11-09) November 9, 1973 New Smyrna, TK	living	October 1, 2019	July 9, 2021
Élena Kunar	(1959-03-11) March 11, 1959 Westphalia, LG	living	July 18, 2021	incumbent

Election results

Presidential elections

Election	Candidate	Percentage of votes (%)	Votes cast	Opponent	Outcome
1979	John Berschleider	54%	3,307,500	Ludvik Nínfongi	Victory
1984	Ionas Miagi	52%	4,563,000	Edward R. Schindler	Victory
1989	Phil Garner	55.7%	5,375,050	Edward R. Schindler	Victory
1994	Phil Garner	53.9%	7,141,750	Roger Kirk	Victory
1999	Alejandra Ríos Soriano	50.7%	7,213,358	Domingo Cardo	Victory
2004	George Wellington	48.4%	8,203,800	Robert Havlichek	Loss
2009	Sebastianus Linș	47.7%	8,347,500	Aleksandrus Șáșnegi (SCP) Cassandra Newell (K4C)	Victory
2014	Élena Kunar	39.3%	7,123,125	Maksimilianus Ureska (SCP) Damian Feynman (Libertarian) Cassandra Newell (K4C)	Loss
2019	Alejandra Ríos Soriano	24.11%	4,715,814	Maksimilianus Ureska (SCP) Damian Feynman (Libertarian) Cassandra Newell (K4C) Matthew Chandler (M4A)	Loss

House of Representatives elections

Election	Percentage of votes (%)	Votes cast	HoR seats	Seat change	Secretary	Majority?
1977	59%	3,215,500	114 / 194		Eberardus Rigi	Yes
1982	53.2%	3,990,000	106 / 200	▼ 8	Eberardus Rigi	Yes
1987	48.3%	4,322,850	96 / 200	▼ 10	Richard Molyneux	No
1992	52.5%	5,433,750	105 / 200	▼ 9	Iolanda Barbarino	Yes
1997	54.7%	6,290,500	109 / 200	▲ 4	Roderick E. Carver	Yes
2002	47.1%	6,193,650	94 / 200	▼ 15	Roderick E. Carver	No
2007	48.3%	7,619,325	93 / 200	▼ 1	Roderick E. Carver	No
2012	39.3%	6,877,500	79 / 200	▼ 14	Alan Parr	No
2017	32.5%	5,963,750	65 / 200	▼ 14	Alan Parr	No
2022	TBD	TBD	69 / 200	▲ 4	Elena Kunar	Relative