Foundation and 2008 parliamentary election Arūnas Valinskas, Lithuanian producer and media personality, first announced the idea of forming a party for "resurrection" in April 2008. It was registered in June of the same year. Valinskas was elected as the leader of the party and served as the leader for the entirety of its existence. From the beginning, the TPP was described as a "showmen's party", as many of its initial members were
TV personalities and representatives of the media industry, much like Valinskas himself. Many of the figures included in the party's
electoral list were personally connected to Valinskas - including his wife , as well as the manager of his company "A. Valinsko tvenkiniai". , who later joined the party, claimed that Valinskas was connected with the
Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and the
Maxima Group. At the
election of 12 October 2008 to the
Seimas, the party won 15.09% of the popular vote and 13 seats in the first round. However, in spite of fielding numerous media personalities known to the Lithuanian public, it only won 3 additional seats in the second round of the single-member constituency elections.
Kubilius Cabinet Before the 2008 parliamentary election, the party announced its interest to work with any parties except the
Labour Party and
Order and Justice, which Valinskas described as threats to national security. However, after the election, the TPP,
Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, the
Liberal and Centre Union and the
Liberal Movement joined in a
centre-right "Coalition for Change" (), which formed the
Kubilius Cabinet II. According to the
coalition agreement, Valinskas was to be elected
Speaker of the Seimas, but he was only elected after a second vote, becoming the first Speaker of the Seimas in Lithuanian history to not be elected on the first vote. As the vote was secret, it is unknown which members of the coalition protested. The TPP nominated Vice-Mayor of
Neringa Municipality Arūnas Burkšas for
Minister of Environment and actor and former leader of the "Eaters of Bread" Party ()
Remigijus Vilkaitis for
Minister of Culture. While Vilkaitis was accepted, the nomination of Burkšas was highly controversial due to his approval of numerous illegal constructions in the
Curonian Spit, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site and a
national park, and was blocked by
Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius. Eventually, was nominated instead.
Decline and split The first signs of the party's collapse came in early 2009, due to protests from the party membership over Valinskas' authoritarian leadership in the party. Valinskas stalled the adoption of a party statute, fearing that it would reduce his control of the party. Opposition within the party also criticized the arrogant attitude of Minister Remigijus Vilkaitis. Regardless, Valinskas was reelected as chairman of the party without opposition in a party conference on 15 March, which also approved a list of the party's candidates for the
2009 European Parliament elections. Though a party statute was also approved in the conference, its registration by the
Ministry of Justice was frozen, as the
Liberal Movement, which controlled the ministry, allegedly sought to hasten the disintegration of TPP and bring its members to their party. Around the same time, the party drew closer to the
Liberal and Centre Union and signed an agreement of parliamentary group cooperation to increase their weight in the coalition against the Homeland Union. The internal conflict in the party and its perceived inability to government severely impacted its ratings. In the
2009 European Parliament election in Lithuania, the party received only 1.04% of the vote and no mandates. After the election, the party considered leaving the coalition, and opponents of Valinskas gained the upper hand in the party's
parliamentary group and central leadership. On 15 July, seven members of the party's parliamentary group who supported the chairman and Speaker of the Seimas, including Valinskas himself, suspended their membership and formed the "Oak" Parliamentary Group (). As a result, the party's parliamentary group withdrew its confidence on its own ministers and threatened with departure from the coalition. In response, Valinskas removed four members of the TPP parliamentary group, including chairman of the group , from the party. Dinius, in response, called for an emergency session of the party presidium on the removal of Valinskas from the party.
Formation of the Christian Party Valinskas' decision to remove four members of the party was ignored, and they, alongside the rest of the party's parliamentary group, left the party on their own accord on 13 August. Around the same time, both Valinskas and Dinius were targeted by
rumors - Dinius and the remaining TPP parliamentary group were accused of being influenced by businessman
Gediminas Žiemelis, who pushed for the group to claim the
Ministry of Transport and Communications to support his private interests, while Valinskas was accused of ties with "the Doctors" (), an
organized crime ring in
Kaunas, led by . In light of these rumors,
President Dalia Grybauskaitė demanded Valinskas' resignation from Speaker of the Seimas. Valinskas refused to resign, in spite of pressure from coalition partners. On 15 September, the Seimas removed him from the position with 95 members voting in favor, and 20 against.
Irena Degutienė was elected as the next Speaker. After the vote, the "Oak" Parliamentary Group adopted the name National Resurrection Party Group, whereas the former National Resurrection Party Group renamed itself to Parliamentary Group "One Lithuania" (). It entered the opposition and merged with the
Christian Conservative Social Union and the
Lithuanian Party of Christian Democracy in January 2010 to form the
Christian Party.
Disbandment and aftermath After the loss of the Christian Party deputies, the remaining members of the TPP began preparing for a merger with the Liberal and Centre Union, and formed a joint group in the Seimas. Initially, the Liberal Movement was also considered for unification, but it refused to merge with the LiCS. In April 2010, Remigijus Vilkaitis was expelled from the party and it delegated Valinskas as their candidate for Minister of Culture, but, after the candidate was criticized by the President, it delegated instead. TPP and LiCS announced their full merger on 22 September 2011, and it was completed on 10 December. A new program was drafted which affirmed commitment to responsible
liberalism and the party's intent to represent a "third way" in Lithuanian politics. Some members (e. g.
Rokas Žilinskas) joined the
Homeland Union instead. Almost all members of the Seimas elected on the party's list in 2008 were not reelected in the
2012 Lithuanian parliamentary election. Both the Christian Party and the Liberal and Centre Union won no seats in the election, and merged into different parties - the Christian Party merged with the
Labour Party in 2013, while the Liberal and Centre Union merged with
YES (itself a split from the LiCS) in 2014 and ultimately with the
Order and Justice party to form
Freedom and Justice in 2020. ==Political positions==