Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania
Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance or EAPL–CFA (Lithuanian: Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija – Krikščioniškų šeimų sąjunga or LLRA–KŠS; Polish: Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie – Związek Chrześcijańskich Rodzin or AWPL–ZCHR) is a political party in Lithuania. It represents the Polish minority and positions itself as Christian-democratic. It has three seats in the Seimas, one seat in the European Parliament, and six seats in coalition with the Russian Alliance in the Vilnius City Municipality after the 2019 local election. Formed in 1994 from the political wing of the Association of Poles in Lithuania, LLRA experienced a surge in support in the 2000s, under the leadership of Valdemar Tomaševski. It increased its representation from under 2% in 2000, leading to the party being invited to join the governing coalition: an invitation they rejected. They increased their vote again to 3.8% in 2004 and 4.8% in 2008: just short of the 5% election threshold for any of the Seimas's 70 proportional representation seats. In the 2009 European election, they won 8.2% and one seat. The party's vote is concentrated in the south-east of the country, around the capital, where the Polish minority is located. At the 2012 election, LLRA broke through 5% in a parliamentary election for the first time: qualifying for proportional representation seats. In the Seimas, the party sits with fellow right-leaning party Order and Justice. LLRA's MEP (its leader Valdemar Tomaševski) sits in the European Parliament with the European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes the Polish Law and Justice and Poland.
political party
political party