Libertarian, Direct, Democratic

Libertarian, Direct, Democratic
Leader	Jean-Marie Dedecker
Founded	2007
Headquarters	National Secretariat Bellevue 5 9050 Gent
Ideology	Libertarianism[1] Conservative liberalism Soft euroscepticism[2]
European affiliation	Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists
European Parliament Group	European Conservatives and Reformists
Official colours	Blue and orange
Former names	Cassandra Lijst Dedecker
Chamber of Representatives	1 / 150
Senate	0 / 40
Flemish Parliament	7 / 124
European Parliament	1 / 22
Website
www.ldd.be

Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (Dutch: Libertair, Direct, Democratisch), abbreviated to LDD, is a libertarian right-wing populist^[3] political party mainly within the Flemish part of Belgium. The party currently holds one seat in the European Parliament, one seat in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, and seven seats in the regional Flemish Parliament.

The party was founded in January 2007 by Senator Jean-Marie Dedecker as List Dedecker ( Lijst Dedecker (help·info); also 'LDD'). Dedecker had left the New Flemish Alliance to found the LDD after the Cassandra think tank judged in 2006 that there was room for a right-wing conservative-liberal movement in the Flemish Community, expressing the need for a "common sense party".

The party surprised commentators by winning five seats in the Chamber and one seat in the Senate in 2007, and eight seats in the 2009 Flemish Parliament election.^[4] The party remained with only one federal seat after the 2010 election. It adopted its current name on 22 January 2011.

The Eurosceptic LDD is a member of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, and its single MEP, Derk Jan Eppink, sits with the ECR group in the European Parliament.

Platform

The party's economic program is predominantly based on free market economics, neoliberalism, a pro-business and free enterprise mindset, limited government, a flat tax system, the reform of unemployment benefits and social security schemes, the fight against waste and corruption, and the overall reduction of red tape, regulation and bureaucracy.

Furthermore, LDD stands for the introduction of a binding referendum, the abolition of barriers for new political parties in Belgium and a tougher approach towards crime. The party also strives for a more independent Flanders. LDD is widely considered to be liberal on social issues, in spite of having a strong traditional conservative wing as well.

At the European level, the party allied itself with moderate Eurosceptics such as the British Conservative Party, the Czech Civic Democrats and the Polish Law and Justice, and sits on the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament. LDD was initially expected to align themselves with the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) after an open invitation to this effect by ELDR chairwoman Annemie Neyts. Prior to joining the ECR group, LDD was also briefly courted by Declan Ganley's pan-European movement Libertas.

LDD opposes the cordon sanitaire that is used to keep the hard-right separatist Flemish Interest from power, claiming that it is unsuccessful and undemocratic. Some critics even argue that the electoral success of LDD has hampered further growth of Vlaams Belang by virtue of attracting rightist or protest votes that otherwise would have gone to Flemish Interest.

At a given point in 2008, LDD was also looking for a political joint venture in Wallonia with liberal economist Rudy Aernoudt as their partner in this endeavour. In 2010, talks were undertaken with the People's Party of Mischaël Modrikamen, which Aernoudt had helped co-found, about political cooperation, but with no tangible result.

Elections

The 2007 general election was the first ever election contested by Lijst Dedecker. They met the 5% threshold for parliamentary representation, in spite of all pre-election polls dismissing the chances for the party. Analyses in the aftermath of the election showing that Lijst Dedecker was able to attract voters from across the political spectrum and from all political parties, led up to vicious attacks and groundless accusations of populism against the party. The party's scandal-loving style also added to this.

In the 2007 general election, the party won 5 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 1 seat in the Senate. In the 2009 Flemish and European elections, Lijst Dedecker won a disappointing 8 seats in the Flemish Parliament and 1 seat in the European Parliament despite pre-election polls that had indicated a bigger share of the votes for Lijst Dedecker. On June 25, one member of the LDD fraction crossed the floor to the Flemish Liberals and Democrats, leaving the LDD caucus with 7 remaining seats. ^[5]

After the 2010 general election, the party only returned one representative to the Chamber of Representatives.

Representation

Federal Parliament

Chamber of representatives

• Jean-Marie Dedecker, floor leader, representing the province of West Flanders

Flemish Parliament

• Lode Vereeck, floor leader, representing the province of Limbourg
• Jurgen Verstrepen, representing the province of Antwerp
• Ulla Werbrouck, representing the province of West Flanders
• Ivan Sabbe, representing the province of West Flanders
• Boudewijn Bouckaert, representing the province of East Flanders
• Patricia De Waele, representing the province of East Flanders
• Peter Reekmans, representing the extraordinary constituency of Leuven

European Parliament

• Derk Jan Eppink, representing the Flemish Electoral College

Election results

Chamber of Representatives

Belgian Chamber of Representatives

Election year	# of total votes	% of vote	# of seats won	Notes
2007	268,648	4.03%	5
2010	150,577	2.31%	1 ( 04)

Senate

Belgian Senate

Election year	# of total votes	% of vote	# of seats won	Notes
2007	223,992	3.38%	1
2010	130,777	2.02%	0 ( 01)

Flemish Parliament

Flemish Parliament

Election year	# of total votes	% of vote	# of seats won	Notes
2009	313,176	7.62%	8

European Parliament

European Parliament

Election year	# of total votes	% of vote	# of seats won	Notes
2009	296,699	7.28%	1

See also

• Liberal Appeal, the right-wing liberal party of former VLD floor leader Ward Beysen.
• Nova Civitas, the classical-liberal think tank of Boudewijn Bouckaert.
• Veilig Blauw, the right-wing liberal party of former VLD senator Leo Govaerts.
• Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, the social-liberal VLD party.
• VLOTT, the right-wing liberal party of former VLD senator Hugo Coveliers.

Footnotes

1. ^ Traynor, Ian (8 June 2009). "David Cameron on track to form alliance of Eurosceptics". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/08/conservative-alliance-european-union. Retrieved 2 March 2011. 
2. ^ Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Brack, Nathalie (2009). The European and Regional Elections of 7 June 2009. European Parliament Election Briefing. 33. European Parties Elections and Referendums Network. http://www.sciencespo.site.ulb.ac.be/dossiers_membres/brack-nathalie/fichiers/brack-nathalie-publication15.pdf. 
3. ^ Norwegian Social Science Data Services, European Election Database
4. ^ Hooghe, Marc; Marien, Sofie; Pauwels, Teun (September 2009). Where do distrusting voters go to if there is no exit or voice option? The Impact of Political Trust on Party Choice in the Belgian Regional Elections of June 2009. https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/244163/1/26640-ECPR.pdf. 
5. ^ Demorgen.be

External links

• (Dutch) Official Libertarian, Direct, Democratic website