Labour Party (Lithuania)
Labour Party (Lithuania)
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Labour Party (Lithuania)

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Labour Party (Lithuania)

The Labour Party (Lithuanian: Darbo partija, DP) is a populist centre-left political party in Lithuania. The party was founded in 2003 by the Russian-born millionaire businessman and member of Seimas Viktor Uspaskich.

In its first electoral test, the 2004 European parliamentary elections, it was by far the most successful party, gaining 30.2% of the vote and returning five MEPs. It joined the European Democratic Party and thus the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Group. At the legislative elections of 2004, the party won 28.4% of the popular vote and 39 out of 141 seats, making it the largest single party in the Parliament of Lithuania. After the election, Labour formed a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, New Union and Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union.

After the 2004 Lithuanian parliamentary election, sociologist Vladas Gaidys speculated that the Labour Party supporters had previously voted for New Union (Social Liberals) between 2000 and 2004.

On 17 May 2006, a pre-trial investigation of the Labour Party began after information from the State Security Department of Lithuania revealed that the party may be funded from illegal activities. During the period from its foundation to 2006, the party's bookkeeping did not report 7 million Euros of additional income. Allegations were first raised on the party's accounting and secretaries, but on 29 June, it was declared that the party will be tried as a juridical person.

Uspaskich resigned from party leadership and fled to Moscow. After a European Arrest Warrant was given to arrest him, he was arrested on 15 August and extradited to Lithuania on 27 August. While in Moscow, Uspaskich organized press conferences where he declared Lithuania to be a "undemocratic state", and described the case as a politicized attempt to destroy the Labour Party.

The Labour Party was acquitted on 2013, as it united with the Labourist Party, a satellite party established in 2008, and was no longer the same legal entity. Though the Supreme Court of Lithuania made a ruling that this reorganization should have been ignored and the case should have been continued, it was not renewed due to an expired statute of limitations. Individual party leaders received fines and prison terms - however, they were acquitted in 2016, on the leadup to the 2016 parliamentary election.

Because of the ongoing "dark accounting" case, the party was expelled from the ruling coalition and moved to opposition in June 2006, while some of its members (including Speaker of the Seimas Viktoras Muntianas) founded the Civic Democratic Party and joined the new coalition led by Gediminas Kirkilas. At the legislative elections of 2008 the party lost heavily, retaining only 10 seats in the Seimas from its previous 39 and obtaining 9% of the national vote.

In 2011, the New Union (Social Liberals) merged with the party. In May 2012, the Labour Party joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party.

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