The Liberal League ( lb, Liberal Liga, french: Ligue Libérale, german: Liberale Liga) was a
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
between 1904 and 1925. It was the indirect predecessor of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
(DP), which has been one of the three major parties in Luxembourg since the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
For the first decade of its existence, the Liberal League maintained the liberal dominance under
Prime Minister Paul Eyschen. In 1908, they formed an alliance with the
Socialists, leading to confrontations with the
Party of the Right over
secularism. During the
First World War, the party lost much of its advantage, and was replaced as the dominant party by the Party of the Right. In the early 1920s, riven by rivalries between its
classical liberal and
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
wings, the party collapsed.
Foundation
The
liberal Liberal League was founded in 1904 as a formalisation of the decentralised ideological alliance already existing within the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
, under the leadership of the
classical liberal Robert Brasseur.
[Hearl (1988), p. 378] The liberal faction was predominantly supported by the entrepreneurial and
middle classes. Nonetheless, in 1908, the Liberal League and the
Socialist Party (formed in 1902) formed a seemingly unlikely alliance, called the 'Left Bloc' (''Bloc de la Gauche'') in
Esch-sur-Alzette.
The main aim of this alliance was to ensure and extend the
secularism of the state, which they saw as being under attack from the overtly
Roman Catholic conservative grouping; secularisation of the school system was the major policy on which they fought the elections of 1908, 1911, and 1912.
The liberals were the dominant force, and the chief liberal,
Paul Eyschen, had been
Prime Minister for sixteen years (and would be for another eleven). However, despite Eyschen's support for the party and the clear legislative support for Eyschen amongst the party's large representation in the Chamber, he never formally enrolled in the party. Similarly, neither did his cabinet ministers, which would have major repercussions for the party after Eyschen's death, in 1915. The informality of the arrangement would lead to the collapse of the liberal-led governments of
Mathias Mongenast and
Victor Thorn; the former was forced out by
Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde, whilst the former was brought down by a cross-party
motion of no confidence.
Despite these reverses, the Liberal League still maintained considerable power in the Chamber of Deputies until the end of the
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
. However, after the war, a host of
constitutional amendment
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, t ...
s undermined their power base. Most notably, the liberals were harmed by the introduction of
female suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
; women were thought of as leaning towards the conservatives, undermining the liberals' hitherto unchallenged advantage in
Luxembourg City and other cities.
Collapse
The expansion of suffrage, together with the loss of the old guard that had dominated Luxembourgian politics for the previous thirty years, caused the Liberal League's political base to be eroded. Two ideological groupings emerged in the party: the 'old' classical liberals and the 'young' progressive liberals. The former camp was led by Robert Brasseur, whilst the latter was led by
Gaston Diderich.
[Hearl (1988), p. 379] A deputy from the
Socialists defected to the Liberal League, forming a 'radical socialist' caucus within the party that was openly opposed to Brasseur's leadership.
In 1925, the old liberals were virtually wiped out, leading to the collapse of the party. The party was succeeded by the
Radical Socialist Party, the
Liberal Left, the
Radical Party. In 1932, the parties re-united under the name of the
Radical Liberal Party, which would go on to become the nucleus of the modern
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
after the war.
[Thewes (2003), p. 123]
See also
*
Liberalism in Luxembourg
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Luxembourg. Organized liberalism has since 1904 been one of the three major political forces in the Grand-Duchy. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having ha ...
, for a more comprehensive overview of its ideological successors
Footnotes
References
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{{Luxembourgian political parties
Liberal parties in Luxembourg
Classical liberal parties
Defunct political parties in Luxembourg
Defunct liberal political parties
Political parties established in 1904
Political parties disestablished in 1925
Secularism in Luxembourg
History of Luxembourg (1890–1945)
Radical parties