Liberalism in Europe

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Overview of liberalism in Europe

A general overview and comprehensive discussion of this topic may be found in the article Liberalism.

In general, liberalism in Europe is a political movement that supports a broad tradition of individual liberties and constitutionally-limited and democratically accountable government. These European derivatives of classical liberalism are found in centrist movements and parties as well as some parties on the centre-left and the centre-right.

Liberalism in Europe is broadly divided into two groups, "social" and "conservative".^[1] This differs from the American method of dividing liberalism into "modern" (simply liberal) and "classical" (or libertarian^{[citation needed]}), although the two groups are very similar to their European counterparts.

Most liberalism in Europe is conservative or classical, whilst European social liberalism and progressivism is rooted in

radicalism

, a left-wing classical liberal idea.)

Liberal practices

President of France, is often described as the strongest advocate for liberalism in Europe.^[2]

Liberal political parties have specific policies, which the social scientist can either read from party manifestos

• the policies of liberal parties in government, including those in coalition arrangements (taking into mind that coalition partners make compromises), since they show what liberals are prepared to accept as well as the policies of liberal parties in opposition
• the positions of the
  European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.^[4]
• the forum of the German
  FDP,^[5] which is relatively unmoderated, and illustrates grassroots liberal concerns. Sites of other Liberal parties, e.g. the British Liberal Democrats^[6] and the Netherlands' Democrats 66,^[7]
  are more heavily moderated and therefore more representative for the policy of liberal parties.
• the Belgian website / think tank Liberales.be^[8] which has longer essays on new liberal policies
• the views and policies of the
  Open Society Institute, since they explicitly claim to derive from the principles of a major liberal philosopher, Karl Popper
  .
• the Lisbon Strategy of the European Union, since it is strongly supported by the liberal parties, and sets out a vision of a future Europe.

Additionally, liberal value preferences can be inferred from the

The liberalism visible in these sources emphasizes in comparison with other ideologies more belief in individual development as a motor for society and the state providing a social safety net. The liberal policies differ from country to country and from party to party.

Ideology

European liberalism is largely divided into classical (in practical terms, liberalism as it is applied to the economy), social, and conservative–liberalism.^[9]

Liberalism in the European context is distinct from

In the context of European politics, a liberal (i.e., when the word is used without a modifier) is generally understood to refer to a classical liberal, who may be either centre-left or centre-right. As a result, a European classical liberal usually refers to a centre-right person with prominent economically liberal tendencies. (Germany's Free Democratic Party, for example, follows classical liberalism in this sense.) Under one interpretation, a European mainstream conservative liberal (e.g., a proponent of ordoliberalism or Christian democracy) usually has weaker economically liberal tendencies than a social liberal.^[9] However, some consider classical liberals (= economic liberals) to be conservative liberals as well.^[15][16]

European Union

European liberalists tend to support the European Union.

Among European liberals, "classical liberals" and "social liberals" support cultural liberalism (ex. LGBT rights issues including same-sex marriage, legalization of some drugs, opening immigration, etc.), but most "conservative liberals", including ordoliberals, Christian democrats and some agrarians, take a moderate-to-conservative stance on cultural issues. (For example, Finland's Keskusta, or "Centre Party", a Nordic agrarian party, follows conservative liberalism in this sense.)^[30][31]

Parties

Government

Country	Symbol	Parties	Head of state Head of government	Upper/ Lower house	Founded	Leader/Founder	Former party	European/ International affliction	Ideology/ Political position
Belgium		Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Flemish Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	Prime Minister Alexander De Croo	Chamber of Representatives (Lower House) 12 / 87 Senate (Upper House) 5 / 60 Coalition Open Vld MR sp.a PS CD&V Ecolo Groen	1992 (VLD) 2007 (Open VLD)	Leader Egbert Lachaert	Preceded by Party for Freedom and Progress	European Renew Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) International Liberal International (LI)	Ideology Liberalism (Belgium)[32][33] Conservative liberalism[34][35] Pro-Europeanism[17] Political position Centre-right[36]
		Reformist Movement French Mouvement Réformateur	N/A	Chamber of Representatives (Lower House) 14 / 87 Senate (Upper House) 8 / 60 Coalition Open Vld MR sp.a PS CD&V Ecolo Groen	21 March 2002	Leader Georges-Louis Bouchez	Preceded by Liberal Reformist Party Citizens' Movement for Change	European Renew Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) International Liberal International (LI)	Ideology Liberalism (Belgium)[33][37] Pro-Europeanism Political position Centre-right[38][39]
Croatia		Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (HNS – LD) Croatian Hrvatska narodna stranka – Liberalni demokrati (HNS – LD)	N/A	Sabor 1 / 151 Coalition Croatian Democratic Union Independent Democratic Serb Party with support from Independents	13 October 1990	Leader Predrag Štromar Founder Savka Dabčević-Kučar	Preceded by Coalition of People's Accord	Regional Liberal South East European Network European Renew Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)	Ideology Social liberalism[40] Pro-Europeanism[18] Political position centre-left[42]
Finland		Centre Party Finnish Suomen Keskusta, Kesk Swedish Centern i Finland	Deputy Prime Minister Annika Saarikko	Parliament 31 / 200 European Parliament 2 / 14 Coalition Social Democratic Party Centre Party Green League Left Alliance Swedish People's Party	1906	Leader Annika Saarikko	Preceded by Annika Saarikko	European Renew Europe International Liberal International (LI)	Ideology Agrarianism[43] Economic interventionism[44] Conservative liberalism[9] Political position Centre[43][45][46]
		Swedish People's Party of Finland Swedish Svenska folkpartiet i Finland Finnish Suomen ruotsalainen kansanpuolue	N/A	Parliament 10 / 200 European Parliament 1 / 14 Coalition Social Democratic Party Centre Party Green League Left Alliance Swedish People's Party	1906	Leader Anna-Maja Henriksson Founder Axel Lille Axel Olof Freudenthal	Preceded by Svecoman movement	European Renew Europe Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) International Liberal International (LI)	Ideology minority interests[47] Liberalism (Finland)[48][49] Pro-Europeanism[19] Political position Centre[50]
France		La République En Marche!	President Emmanuel Macron Prime Minister Jean Castex	National Assembly (Lower House) 280 / 577 Senate (Upper House) 23 / 348 European Parliament 11 / 79 Coalition LREM MoDem MR Agir TDP	6 April 2016	Leader Stanislas Guerini Founder Emmanuel Macron		European Renew Europe	Ideology France ) Classical liberalism Pro-Europeanism Political position Centre
		Agir	Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Franck Riester	National Assembly (Lower House) 11 / 577 Senate (Upper House) 6 / 348 European Parliament 1 / 79 Coalition LREM MoDem MR Agir TDP	6 April 2016	Leader Franck Riester		European Renew Europe	Ideology Conservative liberalism Christian democracy Pro-Europeanism Political position Centre-right[51][52]
Germany		Free Democratic Party	Secretary of the Treasury Christian Lindner	Bundestag 92 / 736 State Parliaments 134 / 1,884 European Parliament 5 / 95 Coalition SPD Grüne FPD	6 April 2016	Chairman Christian Lindner General Secretary Volker Wissing		European Renew Europe	Ideology Liberalism (Germany) Classical liberalism Conservative liberalism[53] Pro-Europeanism Political position Centre to centre-right
Italy		Go Italy Italian Forza Italia	N/A	Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) 79 / 630 Senate of the Republic (Upper House) 50 / 315 European Parliament 9 / 76	16 November 2013	Leader Silvio Berlusconi Founder Silvio Berlusconi		European European People's Party (EPP)	Ideology Italy ) Liberal conservatism Conservative liberalism[54] Berlusconism Political position Centre-right
Portugal		Liberal Initiative Portuguese Iniciativa Liberal	N/A	Parliament 8 / 230	13 December 2017	Leader João Cotrim de Figueiredo Founder Alexandre Krauss Bruno Horta Soares Rodrigo Dias Saraiva (and others)		European Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE)	Ideology Liberalism (Portugal) Classical liberalism Right-libertarianism Pro-Europeanism Political position Centre-right

See also

• Liberalism by country
  for discussion of individual states of Europe
• Classical liberalism (mainly economic liberalism)
• Conservative liberalism (right-liberalism)
  • Liberal conservatism
• Social liberalism (left-liberalism)
  • Liberal socialism
• Libertarianism
• Ordoliberalism
• Radicalism (historical)

Notes