Progressive Party of Laeral

Progressive Party of Laeral Parti Progressiste
Mandarin name	進步黨
President	Tanvi Misra
Secretary-General	Chen Ting-fei
Deputy Secretary-General	Hervé Soler
Leader in the Commons	Émeric André
Leader in the General Assembly	Benjamin Lin
Chair of the Progressive Governor's Union	Lin Yan-ting
Founder	Zhou Wei-lin, Edmond Yeoh, Matthieu Dallaire
Founded	December 19, 1964 (1964-12-19)
Preceded by	Social Democratic Party (Laeral)
Headquarters	Laeralsford
Newspaper	En Avant
Student wing	Student Progressives
Youth wing	Young Progressives of Laeral
Women's wing	National Union of Progressive Women
LGBT Wing	LGBT Progressives
Membership (2016)	2,100,000
Ideology	Social Democracy, Gramontism
Political position	Center-left
International affiliation	Progressive and Labor Alliance
Colors	Red
Anthem	"Progressive March"
Assembly of Commons	80 / 386
General Assembly	17 / 66
Provincial Governors/First Ministers	11 / 33
Website
progressiste.org.lr

The Progressive Party of Laeral (French: Parti Progressiste; Mandarin: 進步黨; Mandarin Pinyin: Jìnbù Dǎng) is a social democratic, Gramontist political party in Laeral. It has historically been a major party since the collapse of the Social Democratic Party in the 1960s and is currently in government at the federal level following the 2018 Laeralian Federal Election. The party counts former President Nicholas Brennan and Foreign Minister Tanvi Misra as members. The Progressive Party is currently the second-largest party in the National Assembly.

History

The Progressive Party of Laeral was formed to contest the 1964 presidential election, which was held during the Great War following President Réne Gramont's declaration of a National Emergency and the ensuing crackdown on civil liberties, ending in Gramont's death of a heart attack. The party could trace its roots to factions within the Social Democratic Party which favored political liberalization while supporting the general goals of the Gang of Five and the Rose Revolution. The Progressive Party's chief founders were Zhou Wei-lin, who had left the Social Democrats over the declaration of National Emergency, as well as Edmond Yeoh, who had long dissented with Social Democratic leadership, and Matthieu Dallaire, a long-time Social Democratic member of the National Assembly.

At its founding, the party aimed to represent Laeralites across racial and linguistic lines, reject corruption, and create a just society through equal treatment for all and the elimination of poverty via social-democratic policies. The party's founding document declared that the party was a "social-democratic party, aiming to establish a society in which all Laeralites may seek common prosperity and brotherhood through the equal economic opportunity created by a strong worker's movement." At the 1964 presidential election, the Progressives nominated Edmond Yeoh, who came third in the first-round of the election with 18% of the nationwide vote. The Progressives had at this point also received members in the Assembly of Commons, mainly defectors from the Social Democrats. At the 1965 federal elections, called by President Georges Auriol after his victory in the presidential election, the Progressives dramatically increased their number of seats in the Assembly of Commons, largely due to support from disaffected Social Democratic voters.

By 1970, with the gradual withering away of both the Social Democratic party and its successor, the Republic Party, the Progressives became the dominant left-of-center party in Laeralian politics. In 1972, Progressive candidate Joseph Carlier, a former representative, chief minister, and Minister of the Economy, was elected President of Laeral with 54% of the vote in the second round. Progressives remained in government throughout Carlier's 1973-1981 term in office, largely in coalition with smaller left-wing allies such as the Republic Party and the Laeralian Communist Party. During his tenure as president alongside Progressive prime ministers, the Progressives worked to establish and expand the Laeralian welfare state, reduce racial inequities, and lay the foundations of Laeral's modern educational system.

The Progressives lost popularity throughout the 80s, as ensuing right-wing governments delivered rapid economic growth. In 1986, malcontents within the Progressives angered at slow progress towards racial equality formed the Progressive Democratic Party which was moderately popular before eventually re-merging with the Progressives in 1993. By the 1990s, when left-wing politics once again gained luster in Laeralian politics, the Progressives had been tainted by their years spent in coalition with right-wing governments led by the Laeralian People's Party, allowing the Socialist Party to gain popularity. The Progressive vote share dropped to record-low levels during the early 2000s, although they became Socialist coalition partners in some governments.

In 2010's presidential election, the unpopularity of right-wing President Eliot Ganard and the fierce role adopted by Progressives in criticizing Ganard's government led to the victory of Progressive candidates in the National Assembly and the election of former Justice Minister Nicholas Brennan as President. Brennan accompanied a Progressive-led government from 2010 to 2018, which was significant in its assertive foreign policy and accession to the World Assembly in 2016. The Progressives experienced a defeat in the 2018 presidential and general elections, when Progressive presidential candidate Tanvi Misra failed to reach the presidential runoff and the Progressives lost vote share. The Progressives were nevertheless the second-largest party in the Assembly of Commons and were invited to join a broad government led by the New Democrats' Nicolas Martin.

Ideology

The Progressive Party is a social-democratic, center-left party which rejects the racial political cleavage in Laeralian society. A party with close ties to organized labor, the Progressives has historically placed value in promoting the needs of the working-class and historically marginalized ethnic groups, particularly Rén. Progressive Prime Minister Tanvi Misra was the second woman and the first Desi individual to hold that position.