Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance
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 3 seats in the Seimas, 1 seat in the European Parliament and 57 seats in municipal councils after the 2023 local election.
Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance Lietuvos lenkų rinkimų akcija – Krikščioniškų šeimų sąjunga Akcja Wyborcza Polaków na Litwie – Związek Chrześcijańskich Rodzin | |
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Abbreviation | LLRA-KŠS |
Chairperson | Waldemar Tomaszewski |
Vice Chairpeople | Zbignev Jedinskij Vanda Kravčionok Zdzislav Palevič Marija Rekst Leonard Talmont |
Secretary General | Renata Sobieska-Monkevič |
Founder | Jan Sienkiewicz |
Founded | 28 August 1994 |
Headquarters | Pilies g. 16, Vilnius |
Membership | 2,097 (2022) |
Ideology | |
Political position | Centre-right to right-wing |
European affiliation | European Conservatives and Reformists Party |
European Parliament group | European Conservatives and Reformists |
Colours | Maroon and blue |
Seimas | 3 / 141 |
European Parliament | 1 / 11 |
Municipal councils | 57 / 1,498 |
Mayors | 1 / 60 |
Website | |
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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 Waldemar Tomaszewski. 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 Comes First, and the party is a member of the ACRE.