Samogitian Party

The Samogitian Party (Lithuanian: Žemaičių partija, Samogitian: Žemaitiu partėjė) is a minor ethnic-regionalist autonomist party of Lithuania's Samogitian minority founded in February 2009.

The predecessor to the party, the "Samogitians Were, Are and Will Be" Initiative Group (Samogitian: Žemaitē bova, īr ė būs, Lithuanian: Žemaičiai buvo, yra ir bus) was founded on 5 July 2007 by five founding members - including former Order and Justice Member of the Seimas Egidijus Skarbalius [lt] and Guinness World Record holder for the strongest beard Antanas Kontrimas [lt]. The founding of the initiative group was spurred by planned reforms to the administrative system of Lithuania which, according to the group, would erase the definition of Samogitia from law, as well as the group's failed attempts to define their ethnicity as Samogitian in their birth certificates. The group also demanded the Minister of Justice, Petras Baguška [lt], to return 30 litas to the group which they had spent on their documents.

The initiative group attempted to organize projects in defense of Samogitian ethnicity, such as registering all Samogitians worldwide into a common registry, and promoting the pseudohistorical book "Samogitia" by amateur historian Charles Pichel, which presents an unfounded history of a supposed "Sun Dynasty" of Samogitia. In late 2007, the group decided to establish a political party.

In 2008, the Ministry of Justice refused to register the party claiming that there were not enough participants at its inaugural meeting, but also that the programme failed to explicitly recognize Lithuania's territorial integrity and indivisibility and the fact that the Lithuanian language is the national language. After repeated demands to the ministry, it finally registered the party in February 2009.

In 2009, the party claimed to have 1100 members. Several local branches of the party were established, including one in London, established in May 2009.

It took part at the 2009 European Parliament election and received 6,961 votes (1.23% of the total). The party's vice-chairman, businessman and lawyer Arvydas Norvydas was put forth as a candidate in the presidential election in the same year, but cancelled his bid due to sickness.

In the 2011 municipal elections, the party won three seats (out of 27) in the council of the Klaipėda District Municipality and entered a coalition with Order and Justice. Egidijus Skarbalius, the party's chairman, was elected as the Vice-Mayor to Mayor Sigitas Karbauskas [lt]. However, this coalition was short-lived and was overthrown by a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Homeland Union after defections from the Order and Justice group in September.

Egidijus Skarbalius chose to participate in the 2012 parliamentary election as a candidate for the Way of Courage party. As he had not informed the party nor was the party in a cooperation agreement with Way of Courage, he was removed from his position as chairman and the party distanced themselves from him. However, he remained a member of the party. In the election, he received 5.94% of the vote in the Gargždai constituency and finished fifth.