Abbreviation TS - LKD First Vice Chairwoman Irena Degutienė Founded May 1993 (1993-05) | Chairman Gabrielius Landsbergis Executive Secretary Paulė Kuzmickienė | |
Vice Chairpeople Mantas Adomėnas
Adomas Bužinskas
Dainius Kreivys
Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė
Monika Navickienė | ||
The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (Lithuanian: Tėvynės sąjunga – Lietuvos krikščionys demokratai, TS-LKD) is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 members and 33 of 141 seats in the Seimas.
It is the main centre-right party, with a particularly liberal conservative and Christian democratic, but also nationalist oriented and economically liberal ideology. Its current leader is Gabrielius Landsbergis who replaced Andrius Kubilius in 2014. It is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the International Democrat Union (IDU).
History
It was founded in May 1993 by the right wing of the Reform Movement of Lithuania, led by Vytautas Landsbergis, who had led Lithuania to independence. In the 1996 national elections, it secured 31.3% of the vote and returned 70 deputies to the Seimas, but, in 2000, it was reduced to 8.6% and 9 deputies.
After Lithuania's admission to the European Union in 2004, it won two seats in the election to the European Parliament, one of whom was Vytautas Landsbergis, who sat in the EPP-ED Group. At the 2004 election to the Seimas, the party won 14.6% of the popular vote and 25 out of 141 seats.
Until the merger with Lithuanian Union of Political Prisoners and Deportees and Right Union of Lithuania), it was known just as Homeland Union (Lithuanian Conservatives). The last change of the name was a result of the merger with the Lithuanian Nationalist Union on 11 March 2008, and the Lithuanian Christian Democrats on 17 May 2008, after which the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats became Lithuania's largest party with more than 18,000 members. Prior to 2008 it was known as the Homeland Union (Conservatives, Political Prisoners and the Exiled, Christian Democrats) or TS. At the 2008 legislative election, Homeland Union won 19.69% of the national vote and 45 seats in the Seimas: 20 more than in 2004. Becoming the largest party in the Seimas, it formed a coalition government with the Liberal Movement, Liberal and Centre Union, and National Resurrection Party. Together, they held a majority of 80 out of 141 seats in the Seimas, and the Homeland Union's leader, Andrius Kubilius, became Prime Minister for a second time.
In June 2011, the Lithuanian Nationalist Union declared its withdrawal from the party.
Support for the party plummeted in the 2012 election, and it was excluded from the government.