Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania
리투아니아 민주노동당
A social-democratic party formed in December 1990 when the main body of the Communist Party of Lithuania, which had broken away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in December 1989, took a new name. Led by Algirdas Brazauskas, it won a parliamentary majority in 1992. It merged with the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania in 2001.
In depth
The party traced its roots to December 1989, when the majority of the Communist Party of Lithuania broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This independent Communist Party came second in the 1990 Supreme Soviet election and joined the national unity government, with Brazauskas as deputy prime minister. After several new names were proposed in the autumn of 1990, the main body of the party reorganised in December 1990 as the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania.
By the late winter of 1992 it had overtaken Sąjūdis as the most supported party, and in the 1992 parliamentary election it won 43% of the vote and 73 seats in the Seimas, still the best result for any party in a Lithuanian parliamentary election. Elected president in 1993, Brazauskas had to stop his party activities under the constitution, and Adolfas Šleževičius became party leader and prime minister; when Šleževičius was charged with corruption in 1996, Česlovas Juršėnas replaced him.
In the 1996 election the party won about 9.5% and 10 seats and became the main opposition party. For the 2000 election it ran on a joint list named after Brazauskas with the Social Democratic Party and others and won 26 seats, and in 2001 it merged with the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania. The merged party took the Social Democratic name but was dominated by former LDDP members.