Political parties with misleading names

[politicus]

Denmark:

The Radical Left (aka Social Liberals) - bland Moderate Hero centrists with a centre-right tilt.
The Left - Denmaks Liberal Party (aka Liberals) - our mainstream centre-right party, which is increasingly a generic Conservative party.
The Progress Party - racist pseudo-Libertarians

Norway and Iceland:

Both countries have a Progress Party, that is not exactly progressive. PP in Norway are quasi-libertarian xenophobes turned generic Conservative and populist. Icelandic PP are rural populists, fairly SoCon and Nationalists.

Virtually all Liberal parties in Africa also belong in this category. Hard to think of an exception, really.
Also lots of African parties with Democratic in them that are authoritarian (but that goes for other continents as well).

[politicus]

The Progress Party - racist pseudo-Libertarians

Could you elaborate on why you think they are racist? Do SD, DF, and PS also qualify as such for you If not, what is the difference between these parties and Frp in regards to racism? I know about their economic right-wing views, but I haven't noticed any remarkable racist stances. I'm genuinely interested (though this is probably slightly off-topic).

Well, it was placed under "Denmark:" as the end of a three party list - and I went on to talk about Iceland and Norway after that.
I think Politicus is refering to a Danish party (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Party_%28Denmark%29) , rather than the Norwegian one, which is described as "quasi-libertarian xenophobes turned generic Conservative and populist." :-) It still exists, but is more important historically, as the predecessor of DF. As the predessor of DF it had and have many shared views, though with a stronger focus on lower taxes rather than less foreigners.

Aaaah. Got it, thanks. I know about the Danish Progress Party, just thought politicus was talking about the Norwegian Frp, which was obviously not the case.

Well, it was placed under "Denmark:" at the end of a three party list - and I went on to talk about the Progress Parties in Iceland and Norway below that. So it should be clear, but yeah, it is the old party of 0-tax lawyer and provocateur Mogens Glistrup, who basically lost it in the 80s and went off the rails. The people left in it are extremely reactionary.

[politicus]

Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa, a party that doesn't even support what's in its own title!

They just have a different definition of economic freedom than yours.

[politicus]

Oh wow, that's what Fianna Fail means? "Soldiers of Destiny"... rofl. De Valera was quite the megalomaniac!

Anyway, someone's gotta mention the Macedonian parties.

Fianna is the band of warriors of Finn MacCumhaill
The Fenians were named after them, so De Valera didn't invent the connection to modern nationalists.

Warriors of Destiny is a better translation IMO.

It is not an unfitting name for a Nationalist party, it is just that FF degenerated so much.

[politicus]

The words also form part of the first line of the Irish language version of the national anthem (although when I was taught the words in primary school during a period of FG/Labour coalition government, the line Sinne Fianna Fáil had been changed in the text-book to Sinne Laochra Fáil - the civil war hadn't gone away, you know).

lol

And speaking of Fine Gael, "Tribe of Gaels" suggests a group of dreadlocked, woad-spattered prehistoric hipsters banging bongo drums outside a teepee, rather than the reality of a pinstriped and blue-rinsed coalition of larger farmers and the bourgeoisie.

Yeah, I thought about them too, but decided against it. I guess it depends what you associate with the term ironic, I was more connecting ironic with names meaning the opposite of what the party stands for rather than names giving a totally different mental image than what the real party projects. But of course those are ironic as well.

In the second category there are some very elitist Peoples Parties around.

[politicus]

Oh yeah how could we forget: "Venstre" (Left)

Mentioned a couple of times already.

[politicus]

Given current polling numbers I guess the Icelandic Bright Future should count. It is routinely called Bleak Future now. But that was a parodic name on what an advertising bureau would call a generic party to begin with.

The Argentinian Peronists calling themselves the Justicialist Party (should be Injusticialist..) and their moderate opponents being the Radical Civic Union are not pretty ironic.

The fist half of AKP being the Justice and Development Party is also ironic.

[politicus]

The Colombian National Integration Party basically being the front of right wing paramilitaries and criminal gangs is pretty ironic. Next to FARC the people with the biggest responsibility for tearing the country apart and keeping it divided with large parts being personal fiefdoms of drug lords and businessmen/landowners with private militias.

[politicus]

Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa, a party that doesn't even support what's in its own title!

So should they change their names to the Economic Horrible People?

Anyway, most of the parties here have names that make them sound more left-wing than they really are. Are there a large number of parties with names that make them sound more right-wing?

The Economic Socialists.


Since 'Economic Freedom Fighters' is not fighting for free economy but a Marxist-Leninist one.

Cmon, it should be obvious that economic freedom for a poor black South African is getting a fair share of the wealth of the country and freeing themselves from being at the bottom of the social hierarchy with no resources and no control of their lives, not a free market economy. There are other definitions of freedom than the liberal one. Seeing capitalism as a form of oppression is still a fairly common view in large parts of the world, for obvious reasons.

[politicus]

Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa, a party that doesn't even support what's in its own title!

So should they change their names to the Economic Horrible People?

Anyway, most of the parties here have names that make them sound more left-wing than they really are. Are there a large number of parties with names that make them sound more right-wing?

The Economic Socialists.


Since 'Economic Freedom Fighters' is not fighting for free economy but a Marxist-Leninist one.

Cmon, it should be obvious that economic freedom for a poor black South African is getting a fair share of the wealth of the country and freeing themselves from being at the bottom of the social hierarchy with no resources and no control of their lives, not a free market economy. There are other definitions of freedom than the liberal one. Seeing capitalism as a form of oppression is still a fairly common view in large parts of the world, for obvious reasons.

Then they would be better named as the "Economic control Party". Since their not for a free economy at all.

Even if one accept your definition of a free economy as one without government control (and that is not a given, sometimes controlling the strong makes the weak more free), then they are not called the Free Economy Fighters, but the Economic Freedom Fighters, which is not the same thing. Economic Freedom is about having the freedom to make economic choices, which require you to have money and resources, if you have none, you are in economic bondage or servitude.

[politicus]

The National Union of Ethical Citizens, an arch-corrupt Paraguayan party founded by a coup leader who was widely suspected of being behind the murder of the vice-president of the country in 1999.

We have a winner!

[politicus]

I'm genuinely surprised no one has mentioned the largest party in the world, which has nuclear missiles but no website.

I guess we are too used to it. All "Communist" parties in one-party states are ironically named today.

[politicus]

On that note: The Workers' Party of Korea is of course a blatantly absurd name.

[politicus]

"Mouvement Réformateur" was a weird name in Belgium for a centre-right party, but I guess it had to do with the fact that the Socialist family were the party of government, usually with the Catholics.

I'm going to have to disagree with both of these. There have been plenty of right-of-center 'reform' parties

The phrase reform is actually monopolized by the right in many European countries where it generally means cutting the welfare state, go full New Public Management in the public sector and letting the free markets reign.

The Reform Party in Canada is a good non-European example of a right wing reform party, that did want to reform Canada quite a lot.