Liberal International’s 56th Congress held in Cairo

In late October 2009, approx. 300 delegates assembled for the 56th Congress of Liberal International(LI). LI is the world-wide organization of Liberal political parties, movements and individuals, founded in April 1947 in Oxford U.K. After Marrakech in 2006, the Congress took place only for the second time in the Arab world.The delegates elected the organisation’s new Bureau: Hans van Baalen, Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch Liberal Party VVD was elected to succeed Lord Alderdice as President of LI. Juli Minoves from Andorra was elected Deputy President. Newly elected Vice Presidents on the Bureau include Senator Cristian David (PNL,Romania ), Jelko Kacin MEP from LDS Slovenia , and Robert Woodthorpe-Browne( Liberal Democrats, UK). Dzhevdet Chakarov MP( MRF, Bulgaria ), Wolfgang Gerhardt MP (FDP, Germany and President of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty), and Bi-Khim Hsiao(DPP, Taiwan) will continue to serve as Vice-Presidents. Treasurers Josep Soler(LiD-Catalonia, Spain) and Silver Meikar MP(Reform Party of Estonia) will also continue their mandate. Newly elected LI-President Hans van Baalen commented that “The nature of politics is not analogous to a friendly game of tennis – rather it is like a rugby match, we should not back down from controversy and confrontation. Liberals have to be on the offensive in the rapidly expanding developed world and must emerge as those best equipped to defend civil rights and the free market”.

Liberal International saw the liberal family enlarged by the applications of seven new observer member parties: the Singapore Democratic Party (Singapore), The National League for Democracy – Liberated Areas (Burma), Civic Will Party (Mongolia), El Ghad Party (Egypt), the Liberal Democratic Party (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the Independent Liberal Party-SLS (Kosovo). All new observer members received unanimous support from Liberal International delegates during the vote. Liberal International also congratulated the Democratic Front Party(Egypt), Radicali Italiani (Italy), the Democrat Party (Thailand) and Partido Justicia Nacional (Peru) on confirmation of their new Full Membership status during the administrative session of the Cairo Congress.

For more information on LI have a look at its website: www.liberal-international.org