Favorite European liberal party

[TheSaint250]

1. Free Democratic
2. Citizens
3. Party for Freedom and Democracy
4. La République en Marche
5. (Tie) Democrats 66
5. (Tie) Liberal Democratic

EDIT: I'm now of the belief that D66 is better than LibDem

[AppleJackass]

La Republique en Marche is centrist

[TheSaint250]

La Republique en Marche is centrist

Liberal in the European sense: economically on the right and socially on the left

[America Needs R'hllor]

1. En Marche! (Accidentally voted D66)
2. D66
3. NEOS
4. Lib Dems
5. FDP
6. Citizens
7. VVD

Most of them are quite good. Don't know enough about Citizens to form a solid opinion though.

[SATW]

FDP when Guido Westerwelle led it. They are also a good protest vote against CDU

[Santander]

My God, what an awful bunch.

[Mr. Smith]

En Marche and the Liberal Dems are the ones that can get things done (they were better under Kennedy), but given the audacity of some of Macron's moves...terrible as they are, his movement takes the cake.

[JA]

My God, what an awful bunch.

[mvd10]

VVD (Party for Freedom and Democracy). I mean, what did you expect ? The VVD is pretty conservative on law and order and immigration though, they're definitely the most conservative party out of this bunch. Most VVD voters probably would be voting for the Tories or other conservative parties over the more left-liberal parties in this list.

[TheSaint250]

VVD (Party for Freedom and Democracy). I mean, what did you expect ? The VVD is pretty conservative on law and order and immigration though, they're definitely the most conservative party out of this bunch. Most VVD voters probably would be voting for the Tories or other conservative parties over the more left-liberal parties in this list.

Just wondering, was I wrong to group it with the other liberal parties? I know it's more to the right than the others, but would you consider it to be liberal? I kind of assumed because it is a member of ALDE.

[mvd10]

VVD (Party for Freedom and Democracy). I mean, what did you expect ? The VVD is pretty conservative on law and order and immigration though, they're definitely the most conservative party out of this bunch. Most VVD voters probably would be voting for the Tories or other conservative parties over the more left-liberal parties in this list.

Just wondering, was I wrong to group it with the other liberal parties? I know it's more to the right than the others, but would you consider it to be liberal? I kind of assumed because it is a member of ALDE.

It's still a liberal party imo. I wouldn't really know how to call them otherwise. Secular conservative maybe (idk if that's a thing)? Conservative liberal probably describes them the best. They (we actually) still consider themselves liberal, and the VVD indeed is a member of ALDE (probably the most right-wing party in ALDE together with Venstre and some other conservative liberal parties though). The VVD has liberal views on things like euthanasia, abortion and LGBT rights and they're generally pro-European (it's common knowledge that Rutte is much more critical of the EU at home than at EU summits).

They still belong in this list, but they're the odd one out (I guess the FDP is fairly close to the VVD, even though the VVD is far to the right of them on civil liberties). But comparative politics is rather sketchy.

Why didn't you include liberal parties in Belgium and Denmark btw? As far as I know they're fairly close to the VVD (I'm not sure about Open VLD, but didn't they become more conservative under Rutten? I don't know much about Belgian politics which is pretty weird ).

[TheSaint250]

VVD (Party for Freedom and Democracy). I mean, what did you expect ? The VVD is pretty conservative on law and order and immigration though, they're definitely the most conservative party out of this bunch. Most VVD voters probably would be voting for the Tories or other conservative parties over the more left-liberal parties in this list.

Just wondering, was I wrong to group it with the other liberal parties? I know it's more to the right than the others, but would you consider it to be liberal? I kind of assumed because it is a member of ALDE.

It's still a liberal party imo. I wouldn't really know how to call them otherwise. Secular conservative maybe (idk if that's a thing)? Conservative liberal probably describes them the best. They (we actually) still consider themselves liberal, and the VVD indeed is a member of ALDE (probably the most right-wing party in ALDE together with Venstre and some other conservative liberal parties though). The VVD has liberal views on things like euthanasia, abortion and LGBT rights and they're generally pro-European (it's common knowledge that Rutte is much more critical of the EU at home than at EU summits).

They still belong in this list, but they're the odd one out (I guess the FDP is fairly close to the VVD, even though the VVD is far to the right of them on civil liberties). But comparative politics is rather sketchy.

Ok thank you!

Why didn't you include liberal parties in Belgium and Denmark btw? As far as I know they're fairly close to the VVD (I'm not sure about Open VLD, but didn't they become more conservative under Rutten? I don't know much about Belgian politics which is pretty weird ).

I was going to, but I kind of made this quickly and just wanted to put in the liberal parties heard about more recently because of the elections.

[Kamala]

Citizens (Spain)

[Kingpoleon]

1. NEOS
2. D66
3. FDP
3. Liberal Democrats
3. LREM!
6. Citizens
7. VVD

[MAINEiac4434]

D66 easily.

[Zinneke]

D66 are frauds lol
LibDems

[mvd10]

D66 are frauds lol
LibDems

Yeah, I forgot to mention that D66 frequently tried to outflank the VVD on economics the past couple of years. D66 called for extra austerity to pay for tax cuts lol. In the end D66's manifesto still was way to the left of the VVD's manifesto on economics (smaller tax cuts, no benefits freeze, etc), but D66 clearly leans to the right on economic issues now (even though their former leader Jan Terlouw said that neoliberalism is destroying us and was the Dutch Bernie for exactly a week after a boring speech on TV).

But are the other centrist liberal parties any different? LibDems have their Orange Book wing (RIP 2010-2015 ), LREM is trying to liberalize the French economy and the FDP probably is as right-wing as the VVD on economic issues. I don't know enough about Citizens and NEOS.

[Zinneke]

D66 are frauds lol
LibDems

Yeah, I forgot to mention that D66 frequently tried to outflank the VVD on economics the past couple of years. D66 called for extra austerity to pay for tax cuts lol. In the end D66's manifesto still was way to the left of the VVD's manifesto on economics (smaller tax cuts, no benefits freeze, etc), but D66 clearly leans to the right on economic issues now (even though their former leader Jan Terlouw said that neoliberalism is destroying us and was the Dutch Bernie for exactly a week after a boring speech on TV).

I voted D66 at a local level when I lived there (for local reasons), and I would maybe vote for them on a provincial level if I were Dutch, but their record negotiating at the national level has been catastrophically bad since their leadership tended to push forward the bland economic policies over the things that people actually chose them for over VVD. Cmon, your strongholds are university cities, put the basisbeurs and education investment back up and shout it from the rooftops!

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What I like(d) about the LibDems over the others is their evidence-based approach to policy (I hesitate to call it scientific), their previous commitment to investment in public services to ensure their quality* and their foreign policy. Sure they have Clegg but I don't blame him for siding with the Tories given the latter were the largest party in 2010 and I think the way the Tory Right has acted without LibDem restraint shows their usefulness and influence, unlike D66.

The others are indeed economically too liberal for my taste, although I still think the jury is out on Macron. I see his labour reforms as a way of making a step towards Germany in order to wrestle back monetary and fiscal policy in the EU from the Germans, through the set up of a Eurozone parliament.

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Not sure about NEOS either, but from what I gather from both here and my Spanish friends Citizens are a much more culturally right-wing party than those liberal parties above and quite frankly putting them alongside those other parties is a real stretch. The problem is you get a different story from every Spaniard ( and especially Catalan) you meet.

[Zinneke]

Why didn't you include liberal parties in Belgium and Denmark btw? As far as I know they're fairly close to the VVD (I'm not sure about Open VLD, but didn't they become more conservative under Rutten? I don't know much about Belgian politics which is pretty weird ).

Yep they did, but only as part of a major shift of debates led by the N-VA towards social issues and identity politics. In reality they are still far less conservative than the VVD, but their youth wing made headlines for this the other day:

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/politiek/1.3038741

[Lechasseur]

Probably VVD followed by FDP

[President Johnson]

LibDems of the UK.

Write in: To Potami (Greece)

[DavidB.]

Danish Venstre > VVD > FDP > LREM > MR > C's > Swedish Liberals > Open Vld > Norwegian Venstre > NEOS > D66 > Lib Dems.

Don't think Finnish Center really qualify as Liberals.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Changing my preference:

1. En Marche!
2. D66
3. FDP
4. NEOS
5. Citizens
6. VVD
7. Lib Dems

[Lechasseur]

Danish Venstre > VVD > FDP > LREM > C's > Swedish Liberals > Norwegian Venstre > NEOS > D66 > Lib Dems.

Don't think Finnish Center really qualify as Liberals.

Yeah I agree Venstre are probably the best liberal party in Europe, for me it's them or Mouvement Réformateur and the other one is second. Open VLD are OK to and would probably be my third choice.

Yeah even though they tend to be classed as ''liberal'' in practice the Finnish Centre Party is a centrist agrarian Party, they probably would have more in common with Christian Democrats than they would with liberals, more than anything they're probably classed as liberal (this is a hunch, I can't say for sure) because they aren't an elitist party and historically they were republican (to the contrary of the National Coalition Party).

At anyrate, I'd prefer the Finnish Centre Party to the others here.

[DavidB.]

Of course Danish Venstre were historically also an agrarian party (and they are still the farmers' party, like the CDA in the Netherlands), but they have a liberal profile that KESK simply do not have, if I am not mistaken. I think in terms of preferred policies the National Coalition Party are very close to Danish Venstre, the VVD and Cameronite Tories, and they would have been my second preference after Danish Venstre had they been included in this poll (but that is rightly not the case as they are no liberals).

Added MR and Open Vld to my post. MR is quite good in the awful hellscape that is Walloon politics; I have a less high opinion of Open Vld.