The Liberal Forum (german: Liberales Forum, LiF) was a
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the ...
,
liberal political party in Austria
This article lists political parties in Austria. Austria has a multi-party system. Of the over 1,100 registered political parties, only few are known to the larger public. Since the 1980s, four parties have consistently received enough votes to g ...
. The party was active from February 1993 to January 2014, when the party merged into
NEOS – The New Austria.
A member of the
Liberal International
Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...
and the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, it was founded as a
classical liberal
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, econom ...
split from the
FPÖ due to its
right-wing populist
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establi ...
stances
and was placed on the
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...
/
post-materialist on a two-axis
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...
, alongside
The Greens – The Green Alternative
The Greens – The Green Alternative (german: Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative, ) is a green political party in Austria.
The party was founded in 1986 under the name "Green Alternative" (''Grüne Alternative''), following the merger of the ...
, in a 2000 comparative analysis among Austrian political parties.
Founding
The Liberal Forum (LiF) was founded on 4 February 1993, when liberals in the
Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), including five members of the
National Council of Austria
The National Council (german: Nationalrat) is one of the two houses of the Austrian Parliament and is frequently referred to as the lower house. The constitution endows the National Council with far more power than the Federal Council.
Responsi ...
, left the party. The five ''Nationalrat'' members were
Heide Schmidt,
Klara Motter,
Friedhelm Frischenschlager,
Hans Helmut Moser, and
Thomas Barmüller. Heide Schmidt (who was third president of the ''Nationalrat'' until 1994) became the party's first chairperson.
The reason for the split within the FPÖ was growing disagreements between the
liberal wing and the
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
camp.
Jörg Haider
Jörg Haider (; 26 January 1950 – 11 October 2008)
was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of ...
launched a petition-drive against foreign immigrants in Austria, the so-called Austria First Referendum (''Österreich Zuerst Volksbegehren''). This in turn was unacceptable to Heide Schmidt and her followers. The founders of the new party wanted to be a liberal party in the classical sense, which the FPÖ had ceased to be since the resignation of
Norbert Steger and the rise of Haider.
LiF was the first party in the history of the
Second Republic (since 1945) to achieve immediate seats in parliament without prior elections. After some initial confusion, the chairs of the house accepted the new formation as an official party, thereby granting access to public financial means of support. The FPÖ left the
Liberal International
Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...
and LiF took over its membership in its place. The party managed to gain 11 seats in the 1994 parliamentary elections, and with 5.51% of all votes cast 10 seats in the 1995 elections.
However, following the resignation of Schmidt as chairperson and the elections in 1999, the party's support plummeted and it failed to gain any seats. In the elections of 3 October 1999 the party obtained 3.65% of all votes and therefore failed to surmount the 4% mandatory threshold in order to enter parliament. In the elections of 2002 it obtained 1% of the vote and got no seats. As a consequence it also lost votes in state elections and is only represented on the communal level. In
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
the party lost all seats on the district level in the elections of 2005.
LiF decided not to contest the
2009 European election, focussing on refounding and building up the party instead. The
Young Liberals (JuLis), the LIF's student and youth organisation, contested the election independently instead.
LiF contested the
2013 legislative election in an electoral alliance with newly formed
NEOS – The New Austria. On 25 January 2014, LiF merged into NEOS, which took the full name of NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum.
Ideology
According to its founding charter, the LiF propagated political liberalism and advocated a
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
economy. Furthermore, the party wanted
environmental protection
Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...
and supported world peace.
The party supported:
* Promotion of
privatisation
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
* Legalisation of
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...
* Equalisation of
homosexuals
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...
* Liberalisation of
shopping hours
Customs and regulations for shopping hours (times that shops are open) vary between countries and between cities.
Shopping days and impact of holidays
Some countries, particularly those with predominantly Christian populations or histories, do ...
* Increase of the voting age
Chairpersons since 1993
The chart below shows a timeline of the Liberal chairpersons and the
Chancellors of Austria
The chancellor of the Republic of Austria () is the head of government of the Republic of Austria. The position corresponds to that of Prime Minister in several other parliamentary democracies.
Current officeholder is Karl Nehammer of the Aust ...
. The left bar shows all the chairpersons (''Bundessprecher'', abbreviated as "CP") of the Liberal party, and the right bar shows the corresponding make-up of the Austrian government at that time. The red (
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...
, SPÖ) and black (
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria.
Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is curre ...
, ÖVP) colours correspond to which party led the federal government (''Bundesregierung'', abbreviated as "Govern."). The last names of the respective chancellors are shown, the Roman numeral stands for the
cabinets.
ImageSize = width:420 height:300
PlotArea = width:370 height:250 left:50 bottom:50
Legend = columns:3 left:50 top:25 columnwidth:50
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1993 till:2010
TimeAxis = orientation:vertical
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1993
# there is no automatic collision detection,
# so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap
Colors=
id:LIF value:yellow legend:LIF
id:SPÖ value:red legend:SPÖ
id:ÖVP value:gray(0.25) legend:ÖVP
Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar
Define $dy = -4 # adjust height
PlotData=
bar:CP color:red width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:1993 till:2000 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LIF text: Heide Schmidt
from:2000 till:2000 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LIF text:Christian Köck
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ� ...
from:2000 till:2001 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LIF text: Friedhelm Frischenschlager
from:2001 till:2008 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LIF text:Alexander Zach
Alexander Zach (born 10 September 1976) is an Austrian politician and former member of the Austrian Parliament (2006–2008). He has been the head of the Liberal Forum from 2001 to 2008. Although his party did not run the elections of 2006, Zach ...
from:2008 till:2009 shift:($dx,$dy) color:LIF text: Werner Becher
from:2009 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:LIF text:Angelika Mlinar
Angelika Rosa Mlinar (born 29 June 1970) is an Austrian and Slovenian politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2014 until 2019. She is a member of NEOS – The New Austria, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democr ...
bar:Govern. color:red width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:7
from:1993 till:1994 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text: Vranitzky III
from:1994 till:1996 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky IV
from:1996 till:1997 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text:Vranitzky V
from:1997 till:2000 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text: Klima
from:2000 till:2003 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text: Schüssel I
from:2003 till:2007 shift:($dx,$dy) color:ÖVP text:Schüssel II
from:2007 till:2008 shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text: Gusenbauer
from:2008 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:SPÖ text: Faymann
Parliamentary election results
National Council
European Parliament
Notes
On 7 June 2005,
MEP Karin Resetarits
Karin Kraml (née Müller; born 15 December 1961) is an Austrian journalist and politician. She was Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2009. At the time, her surname was Resetarits.
Early and personal life
Kraml was born in Vienn ...
left the party of
Hans-Peter Martin Hans-Peter Martin (born 11 August 1957) is an Austrian author and journalist and former politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament between 1999 and 2014.
Journalist and author
Born in Bregenz, Austria, Martin graduated from the ...
, following several disagreements with him. She
crossed the floor
Crossed may refer to:
* ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis
* ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie
* "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead''
S ...
and has taken her seat with the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europ ...
. Subsequently, In 2006 she also joined the Liberal Forum and represented them in the European Parliament.
In the
2006 elections, the Liberal Forum did not stand, but chairman Alexander Zach instead ran on the
Social Democratic Party of Austria
The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...
electoral list as an independent.
The Liberal Forum participated in the
2008 elections, its Electoral list led by the former chairperson
Heide Schmidt. Shortly before the elections, there were allegations that Zach had lobbied for
EADS
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
, leading to his resignation in order to protect the party's integrity; Schmidt took over as interim leader.
See also
*
Liberalism in Austria
*
List of liberal parties
*
Liberalism worldwide
*
Contributions to liberal theory
Contribution or Contribute may refer to:
* ''Contribution'' (album), by Mica Paris (1990)
** "Contribution" (song), title song from the album
*Contribution (law), an agreement between defendants in a suit to apportion liability
*Contributions, a ...
References
External links
Liberal Forumofficial site
{{Authority control
1993 establishments in Austria
2014 disestablishments in Austria
Centrist parties in Austria
Defunct political parties in Austria
Defunct liberal political parties in Austria
Freedom Party of Austria breakaway groups
Liberal parties in Austria
Political parties established in 1993
Political parties disestablished in 2014