Political parties with misleading names

[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.

[jaichind]

Political Group of Okinawa Revolution ((政党そうぞう) which is an Okinawa regional party.  Despite its name it is conservative in nature and a rationalist splinter of the the center-right LDP of Japan. 

[Hydera]

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

R O F L


But then again the retard that runs the party was kicked out of the ANC. Which is quite a feat given the tons of things they tolerate, from rape scandals to corruption.

[ObserverIE]

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.

Fál is one of a number of poetic terms for Ireland, so the best translation is arguably "Warriors of Ireland". 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).

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.

[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.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Yeah isn't PP (Spain) sometimes translated as the "Popular Party"? That's gotta be kinda ironic atm.

[Phony Moderate]

Oh yeah, this one too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_GB

[Figueira]

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?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

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

[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.

[ObserverIE]

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.

Its rarely-used subtitle is "The United Ireland Party", doubly ironic given its role as last refuge for Southern Unionists and Castle Catholics.

Also, delving into the recent past, "Progressive Democrats".

[Hydera]

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.

[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.

[Hydera]

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.

[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.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Um, the term "economic freedom" is very loose. Don't read this as me supporting Malema, who is a corrupt goon, but I think you're being a bit obtuse. Here, I lifted this off some socialist website:

Under socialism, all authority will originate from the workers, integrally united in Socialist Industrial Unions. In each workplace, the rank and file will elect whatever committees or representatives are needed to facilitate production. Within each shop or office division of a plant, the rank and file will participate directly in formulating and implementing all plans necessary for efficient operations.

Besides electing all necessary shop officers, the workers will also elect representatives to a local and national council of their industry or service and to a central congress representing all the industries and services. This all- industrial congress will plan and coordinate production in all areas of the economy. All persons elected to any post in the socialist government, from the lowest to the highest level, will be directly accountable to the rank and file. They will be subject to removal at any time that a majority of those who elected them decide it is necessary.

Such a system would make possible the fullest democracy and freedom. It would be a society based on the most primary freedom, economic freedom.



Yes I know leftists are quite tedious, but their definition of economic freedom makes just as much sense (especially from the perspective of the EFF's target audience) as the classical liberal interpretation.

[Sir John Johns]

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.

The Brazilian Labour Party, the National Labour Party and the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party which are all right-wing populist parties.

The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, a Bolivian party which is possibly even less revolutionary than the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Back in the 1970s, there was in Ecuador a party named the National Guevarist Party. People unfamiliar with Ecuadorian politics would assume it was a communist party but it was actually a populist party with "Guevarist" standing for Carlos Guevara Moreno, a local politician, and not for the much more famous Guevara.

[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!

[DavidB.]

The Dutch Center Party (later Center Party '86) also comes to mind, as well as its short-lived splitoff, the Center Democrats. These parties were not the moderate-heroic centrist parties or agrarians' parties one would think they would be - they were far-right neo-nazi parties. CP'86 decided to make the German NPD's party chapter its own... CP'86 was banned in 1998.

[DC Al Fine]

New Democratic Party of Canada is over 50 years old now

Progressive Conservative is another one of those lovely oxy-moronic names.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah isn't PP (Spain) sometimes translated as the "Popular Party"? That's gotta be kinda ironic atm.

"Popular" and "People's" are the same word in Latin languages. The main right-wing party in France also used to be called the Union for a Popular Movement. And let's not forget about the various Popular Fronts that have existed at some point or another in France, Spain and Italy. Or the Populares in the late Roman Republic.

[Hydera]

Not sure if this was posted already.   But the Freedom party of Austria which is very socially conservative.

Then theres the Party for Freedom.

[DavidB.]

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

The Dutch VVD would have qualified in its early days and still has a hard time shaking off this image. For some (mainly for working-class people), the party still carries this stigma, and it doesn't help that many of the VVD's top-ranking members are visibly upper class. Even though the party has to some degree managed to get rid of this by taking populist law and order stances in the last two elections, the image of the elitist party always comes back to haunt the VVD in times when it's less popular - like now.

In this respect, the comparison between the UK Conservatives and the Dutch VVD is quite striking, also because the VVD is the heir to the (religiously-mildly-protestant-politically-liberal) ruling elite in the nineteenth century, and Mark Rutte exactly fits this description. (Even though Dutch pillarization has later in time caused many differences between Dutch and UK elites, in terms of elite ties to religion - but still, the comparison partly stands.)

Then theres the Party for Freedom.

Now you're entering "I don't agree with this party so its name is wrong" territory. Freedom can be interpreted in so many ways. One could disagree with the PVV's interpretation of freedom, but its name isn't misleading in and of itself.