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.
Libertas 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:
Their political positions were as follows:
The 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.
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:
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.
The 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 | |||||||
| Economy and work | The EU should drastically reduce its subsidies to Europe's farmers | |||||||
| European integration | The European Union should be enlarged to include Turkey | |||||||
| Society, religion and culture | Euthanasia should be legalised | |||||||
| European integration | Individual member states of the EU should have less veto power | |||||||
| Society, religion and culture | The legalisation of same sex marriages is a good thing | |||||||
| Welfare, family and health | Greater efforts should be made to privatise healthcare services in your member state | |||||||
| Migration and immigration | Immigration policies oriented towards skilled workers should be encouraged as a means of fostering economic growth | |||||||
| Foreign policy | On foreign policy issues, such as the relationship with Russia, the EU should speak with one voice | |||||||
| Society, religion and culture | The decriminalisation of the personal use of soft drugs is to be welcomed | |||||||
| Finances and taxes | Governments should bail out failing banks with public money | |||||||
| European integration | European integration is a good thing | |||||||
| Environment, transport and energy | The promotion of public transport should be fostered through green taxes (e.g. road taxing) | |||||||
| Law and order | Restrictions of civil liberties should be accepted in the fight against terrorism | |||||||
| Foreign policy | The European Union should strengthen its security and defence policy | |||||||
| Finances and taxes | Government spending should be reduced in order to lower taxes | |||||||
| Economy and work | Governments should reduce workers' protection regulations in order to fight unemployment | |||||||
| Environment, transport and energy | Policies to fight global warming should be encouraged even if it hampers economic growth or employment | |||||||
| Environment, transport and energy | Renewable sources of energy (e.g. solar or wind energy) should be supported even if this means higher energy costs | |||||||
| European integration | Your member state is much better off in the EU than outside it | |||||||
| Welfare, family and health | Social programmes should be maintained even at the cost of higher taxes | |||||||
| Society, religion and culture | Religious values and principles should be shown greater respect in politics | |||||||
| European integration | The European Parliament should be given more powers | |||||||
| Law and order | Criminals should be punished more severely | |||||||
| Migration and immigration | Immigrants from outside Europe should be required to accept our culture and values | |||||||
| Welfare, family and health | State subsidies for crèches and child care should be increased substantially | |||||||
| Migration and immigration | Immigration into your member state should be made more restrictive | |||||||
| European integration | Any new European Treaty should be subject to approval in a referendum in your member state | |||||||
| Sources | http://www.euprofiler.eu/party/171/19/ | http://www.euprofiler.eu/party/109/3/ | http://www.euprofiler.eu/party/111/3/ | http://www.euprofiler.eu/party/385/27/ | http://www.euprofiler.eu/party/238/28/ | http://www.euprofiler.eu/party/269/32/ | ||
The 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:
The 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:
The Oscarsson and Dahlberg paper "Mapping the European Party Space: Does Party System Simplicity produce Democratic Legitimacy?" 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):