2006, while some of its members (including Speaker of the Seimas Viktoras Muntianas) founded the Civic Democratic Party and joined the new coalition led by Gediminas Kirkilas. At the legislative elections of 2008 the party lost heavily, retaining only 10 seats in the Seimas from its previous 39 and obtaining 9% of the national vote. In 2011, the New Union (Social Liberals) merged with the party. In May 2012, the Labour Party joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party. Second government and opposition (since 2012) At the 2012 parliamentary election the party had considerable success, obtaining 19.82% of the votes (+11.83% compared with the 2008 election) in the proportional representation quota and a total tally of 29 seats. Following the results, the Labour Party joined the coalition cabinet led by Algirdas Butkevičius, with 4 portfolio ministers out of 15. In 2013, the Christian Party merged with the party. At the 2016 parliamentary election the party obtained just 4.88% of the votes in the proportional representation quota (5% of the votes are needed for representation) and won only 2 seats in single member constituencies. In 2017 the party started to lose its members (including long–time members like former chairman Živilė Pinskuvienė) en masse, which formed various movements in local government or joined the Social Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania in 2018. On April 15, 2018, former chairman Viktor Uspaskich was selected as the new chairman of the party. After this, the party made speedy recovery – in 2019 municipal election the party obtained 5.09% of the votes and in 2019 European Parliament election it won nearly 9% of the votes. At the 2020 parliamentary election the Labour Party won about 10% of the votes. This gain of support was attributed to votes' shedding of Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania – Christian Families Alliance, which by itself failed to reach 5 per cent threshold in nationwide constituency. In 2021 the party's board decided to withdraw from its affiliation of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party. This came following the expulsion of party leader MEP Viktor Uspaskich from the Renew Europe group at the European Parliament due to his homophobic comments. Ideology The Labour Party is usually defined as a personalistic populist party without a clear ideological orientation. It describes itself as a "party of the centre open to everyone." During electoral campaigns, it generally