ABSTRACT
One can reasonably argue that the liberal parties at national level, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party, and the ALDE group in the European Parliament (EP) are different components of one European–wide party organisation. L. Bardi et al. classify the national member parties as the ‘party on the ground', the European political party as the ‘party in central office’, and the corresponding political group in the EP as the ‘party in public office’, together with the liberal ministers in the Council of Ministers and the liberal commissioners in the European Commission. This chapter focuses on the ALDE Party and the ALDE group in the EP, based on a literature review, party documents, and interviews with former party president Graham Watson, party president Hans van Balen, and EP Group chairman Guy Verhofstadt. It discusses the main developments of the ALDE Party from its establishment in 1976 to the 2014 European elections.
