New Era Party
|
New Era Party
Jaunais laiks |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Leader | Valdis Dombrovskis |
| Founded | 2 February 2002 |
| Dissolved | 6 August 2011 |
| Merged into | Unity |
| Headquarters | Riga |
| Ideology |
Liberal conservatism, Economic liberalism |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| European affiliation | European People's Party (2002-2011) |
| European Parliament group | European People's Party (2004-2011) |
| Colours | Blue and white |
| Website | |
| www |
|
The New Era Party (Latvian: Jaunais laiks, JL) was a centre-right political party in Latvia. Founded in 2002, the party merged with Civic Union and Society for Other Politics to form Unity in 2011.
New Era is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and its MEPs in the European Parliament sat in the European People's Party (previously EPP-ED).
New Era was founded on 2 February 2002 by Einars Repše, a politician and central banker who was very popular at that time. Originally, most of the party candidates were political unknowns led by Repše.
In its first election campaign, New Era promised to combat corruption and tax evasion. According to New Era promises, eliminating tax evasion would increase Latvia's state budget by 400 million Latvian lats (about 750 million United States dollars), allowing for increased funding for a variety of programs and also for tax cuts. Running on this platform, the party won 23.9% of the popular vote and 26 out of 100 seats in the 2002 legislative election and became the largest party in the Saeima, the parliament of Latvia. It formed a coalition government with 3 other parties, with the New Era leader Einars Repše as the prime minister. In January 2004, the coalition fell apart and Repše resigned.
New Era was in the opposition until October 2004, when it joined a coalition government led by Aigars Kalvītis of the People’s Party. It left the coalition after a vote-buying scandal in the Jūrmala municipal elections which involved one of its coalition partners, the Latvia's First Party. The New Era Party first requested Latvia's First Party to leave the coalition. After Latvia's First Party and prime minister Kalvītis refused this demand, all New Era ministers resigned on 13 April 2006. In the October 2006 parliamentary elections, the New Era party won 18 seats. After the elections it did not rejoin the coalition government. Despite its significant losses, it became the largest opposition party.
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