Liberal Reformist Party (Belgium)

The Liberal Reformist Party (French: Parti Réformateur Libéral, PRL) was a liberal[1][2][3] political party active in Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium. The PRL grew out of the Francophone part of the unitary liberal Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV-PLP) in 1971 and merged into the Reformist Movement (RM) in 2002.

Liberal Reformist Party
Parti Réformateur Libéral
Founded1971
Dissolved2002
Split fromParty for Freedom and Progress
Merged intoReformist Movement
IdeologyLiberalism[1][2]
Political positionCentre-right
European affiliationEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
International affiliationLiberal International
European Parliament groupELDR Group

History

In 1971, the Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV-PLP), inheritor to the historical Liberal Party of Belgium, split into a Flemish and a Francophone party,[4] anticipating the political devolution bill of 1980. Initially keeping the French version of the old party name (Parti de la liberté et du progrès), the party relaunched as the Party of Reforms and Freedom of Wallonia (Parti des réformes et de la liberté de Wallonie, PRLW) after taking over the Walloon Rally. In Brussels, the French-speaking Liberals co-operated intensively with the Democratic Front of the Francophones (FDF). In 1979, the Francophone liberals of the capital merged into the PRLW, which took the new name of Liberal Reformist Party (PRL).

The Walloon liberals participated in the federal government from 1973 to 1977 (Leburton governments I-II, Tindemans governments I-III), in 1980 (Martens government III), from 1981 to 1988 (Martens governments V-VII), and from 1999 to 2003 (Verhofstadt I Government).

In 1993, the PRL formed an alliance with the Democratic Front of the Francophones (FDF), a party standing up for the rights of French-speakers in and around Brussels. In 1998, the Citizens' Movement for Change, a split-off from the Christian Social Party, joined the alliance, making it the PRL-FDF-MCC Federation. On a congress in 2002, the German-speaking liberals of the Party for Freedom and Progress also joined and the alliance took the name of Reformist Movement (MR). After this congress, the PRL completely merged in the MR.

Presidents

Notable members

See also

References
  1. Thomas Banchoff; Mitchell Smith (1999). Legitimacy and the European Union: The Contested Polity. Routledge. pp. 123–. ISBN 978-0-415-18188-4. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  2. Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko; Matti Mälkiä (2007). Encyclopedia of Digital Government. Idea Group Inc (IGI). pp. 397–. ISBN 978-1-59140-790-4. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  3. Bale, Tim (2021). Riding the populist wave: Europe's mainstream right in crisis. Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-009-00686-6. OCLC 1256593260.
  4. Ishiyama, John T.; Breuning, Marijke (1998), Ethnopolitics in the New Europe, Lynne Rienner, p. 122, ISBN 9781555876104, retrieved 12 January 2012
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