Political colour

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Certain political parties or positions have become associated with different colours at different times.

Contents

Colours

Black is primarily associated with anarchism (see anarchist symbolism).
*In the countries with a history of anti-clericalism in Europe and elsewhere in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the officials of the Catholic Church, because their vestments are often black, were called the Black International. In Germany, it is the colour of Christian democrats, along with orange.
*Black is sometimes associated with fascism (see blackshirts)

Blue, particularly dark blue, is often associated with Conservative parties, originating from its use by that party of the UK.
*Light blue is used for the field of the flag of the United Nations. It was chosen to represent peace and hope. In politics, light blue is often attributed to liberalism in the same way the dark blue is the colour of political conservatism.
*However, for much of the nineteenth century, the 'blues' in both France and Italy were moderate reforming conservatives, while the absolutist monarchists were whites.
*Another anomaly is that blue is associated with the liberal (by U.S. definition) Democratic Party of the United States (see blue state).

Brown has been associated with working class Nazism, because the Sturmabteilung (commonly known as the SA) were called "brownshirts". In Europe and elsewhere in the twentieth century, fascists were sometimes called the Brown International.

Gray was chosen by the German political writer Paul de Lagarde as the symbol of liberals in the nineteenth-century sense (or current European one), which he called the Gray International.
*Gray is also historically associated with the Confederate States of America because of the grey Confederate uniforms.

Green is the colour for green parties worldwide.
*Sea green was used as a symbol by members of the Levellers in 17th century Britain; for this reason, it is occasionally used to represent radical liberalism or libertarianism.

Orange is sometimes associated with Christian Democratic parties and sometimes various kinds of populistic parties. Such is the case in Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, Hungary, Bolivia, Canada, and the Ukrainian coalition behind the Orange Revolution. In the UK and Ireland it, orange is associated with Unionism and the Orange Order

Red is traditional colour of socialism and communism, see Red flag.

White has been linked to pacifism (as in the surrender flag) and to independent politicians like Martin Bell.

*Historically, it was associated with support for absolutist monarchists, first for supporters of the Bourbon dynasty of France, because it was the dynasty's colour. Later it was used by the Czarist Whites in the Russian Revolution of 1917, because their purpose was similar. In the civil war following the independence of Finland in 1917, white was used by the conservative and democratic forces which stood against the socialist red forces.

Yellow has been used for liberalism, starting with its use by the Liberal Party of the UK.
*Yellow is also associated with Judaism and the Jewish people (see also Yellow badge). In the nineteenth century in Europe, anti-Semites sometimes referred to Jews collectively as the Yellow International. This derives from the name of a German book, The Golden International.

Exceptions

Political parties vary the shades of their colours depending on the situations. Most U.S. politicians use red, white and blue together. In the UK, the Labour Party has recently used bold red with yellow lettering in areas of majority Labour support but also more purple tones in marginal Conservative areas.

Other notable exceptions and variations to the above colour schemes are:

In Australia, the Australian Labor Party will typically use red, and the Liberal Party of Australia typically blue, however this does conform to the above colour scheme as the "liberal" party is in reality conservative and the ALP has historically identified itself as a social-democratic party. The use is essentially the same as the use of blue and red by the British Conservative and Labour Parties. The Australian Greens use green, while a green-and-gold combination is used both by the National Party of Australia and the Australian Democrats. The colours for the latter, however, are not ideological in nature, but are derived from the fact that Australia's national colours are green and gold.

In Austria, the Social Democrats are traditionally branded red while the conservative Austrian People's Party is associated with black. The far-right nationalist Freedom Party of Austria is blue and the Green's colour is green.

In Belgium, the Liberal Democrats (VLD and MR) are blue and the Christian Democrats (CD&V and CDH) are orange. The colour of the Flemish nationalists (N-VA) is yellow. No consistent colour is used for the right-wing nationalist Vlaams Belang, colour used in media or campaigns include white, purple, brown and yellow.

In Canada, the official colour for the New Democratic Party is orange, while the Liberal Party of Canada uses red, the Conservative Party of Canada uses blue, and the Bloc Québécois uses light blue.

In Germany, the Social Democrats are traditionally branded red while the conservative Christian Democrats are black. The Liberal party is yellow, and the Greens are unsurprisingly green. In East Germany, the youth association of the communist party used a blue flag.

In Mexico, the leftist PRD uses yellow. The Right-Wing PAN uses blue and white, the colours of the Virgin of Guadalupe, symbol of Mexican Catholicism.

In the Netherlands, conservative Liberals (VVD) are blue, Liberal Democrats (D66) use green as well as the Christian Democrats. Green Left uses both green and red to represent its blend of ecologism and leftism.

In Northern Ireland, the Protestant parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly are called the "orange block" and the Catholic parties are the "green block".

In Portugal, the moderate conservatives (Social-Democrat Party, whose name may cause confusion, since it is not a traditional social-democrat party, but much more right-leaning) are orange and the socialists are pink.

In Taiwan, the leading groups of parties are the more Chinese nationalist Pan-Blue Coalition and the more Taiwanese independence Pan-Green Coalition. The New Party uses yellow as its party colour even though its policies are conservative; the Democratic Progressive Party uses green even though its international alignment is with the Liberal International and not the Green parties.

In the UK (excluding Northern Ireland), where electoral rosettes are commonly worn for campaigns, the Conservatives use dark blue; Labour, red; and the Liberal Democrats, yellow. With many other smaller parties choosing their own colour schemes, Independents unsurprisingly use white. Notably the single issue UK Independence Party has chosen to use the non-aligned colour purple with yellow.
*Additionally some of the established political parties use or have used colour variations in their own locality. For instance the traditionally colour of the Penrith & the Border Conservatives is yellow, and not dark blue. Also the traditionally colour of the Warwickshire Liberals was green, and not orange/yellow.

In the United States there is no official association between political parties and specific colours. The two major political parties use the national colours — red, white, and blue — to show their patriotism. The only common situation in which it has been necessary to assign a single colour to a party has been in the production of political maps in graphical displays of election results. In such cases, there has historically been no consistent association of particular parties with particular colours. In the weeks following the 2000 election, however, there arose the terminology of blue states and red states, in which the conservative Republican Party was associated with red and the liberal Democratic Party with blue. Political observers subsequently latched on to this association, which resulted from the use of red for Republican victories and blue for Democratic victories on the display map of a television network. This association has certainly not been consistently applied in the past: during previous presidential elections, about half of the television networks used the opposite association. In 2004, the association was mostly kept.

There is some historical use of blue for Democrats and red for Republicans — in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Texas county election boards used colour coding to help Spanish speakers and illiterates identify the parties.[link] However, this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not picked up on a national level.

Maps for presidential elections produced by the U.S. government use the opposite system, with red for Democrats and blue for Republicans — for example, see U.S. presidential election, 1992.

Nevertheless, since the 2000 election the news media have tended to use red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, especially as it relates to the electoral majority in each state, informally calling them the Red states and Blue states. The colour green is often used for the Green Party, and the colour yellow is often used for the Libertarian Party.

A February 2004 article in the New York Times examined this issue.[link].

In a video released by the White House depicting Christmas celebrations there, Karl Rove is seen tearing blue ornaments off the Christmas tree, replacing them with red ones. This is a reference to the political colours.

List of colours associated with different parties in various countries

Austria

BZÖ: orange
FPÖ: blue
Die Grünen: green
ÖVP: black
SPÖ: red

Finland

National Coalition Party (Kansallinen Kokoomus/Nationella Samlingspartiet): Blue
Christian Democrats (Kristillisdemokraatit/Kristdeokraterna): Blue and White
The Liberals (Liberaalit/Liberalerna): Yellow
Centre Party (Suomen Keskusta/Centern i Finland): Green
Social Democratic Party of Finland (Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue/Finlands Socialdemokratiska Parti): Red
Swedish People's Party (Ruotsalainen Kansanpuolue/Svenska Folkpartiet): Red and Yellow
Left Alliance (Vasemmistoliitto/Vänsterförbundet): Red
Green League (Vihreä liitto|Gröna Förbundet): Green

France

Front National: brown
Les Verts: green
Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire: red
Lutte Ouvrière: red
Mouvement National Républicain: red, white, blue
Parti Communiste Fançais: red
Parti des Travailleurs: red
Parti Radical du Gauche: light pink, yellow
Parti Socialiste: pink
Alternative Libérale: purple
Union pour la Démocratie Française: light blue
Union pour un Mouvement Populaire: blue

Germany

Bündnis '90/Die Grünen: green
Christlich Demokratische Union in Deutschland: black, orange
Christlich Soziale Union in Bayern: black
Freie Demokratische Partei: yellow, blue
Linkspartei: red (in charts often purple)
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands: red

Greece

ND (Nea Dimokratia): blue
PASOK (Panellinion Sosialistikon Kinima): green
KKE (Kommounistikon Komma Ellados): red
SYN (Synaspismos): multiple colours
LAOS (Laikos Orthodoxos Synagermos: blue, white
Oikologoi: green

Guinea

PUP: Green
RPG: Yellow

Hungary

Fidesz: orange
MSZP: red
SZDSZ: blue, blue-white
MDF: green, green-white

India

Communists (CPI, CPI(M), etc.): red
Hindu nationalists (Bharatiya Janata Party, RSS, Shiv Sena, etc.): saffron
Indian National Congress (and split-offs like NCP, NTC, etc.): orange-white-green
Bahujan Samaj Party, Republican Party of India (parties representing dalits): blue
Rashtriya Janata Dal: green
Janata Dal (Secular): green
Telugu Desam Party: yellow
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference: red
Telangana Rashtra Samithi: pink
Gorkha National Liberation Front: green
Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra: green-white

Republic of Ireland

Fianna Fáil: green, orange
Fine Gael: blue, green
Green Party/Comhaontas Glas: gold, light green
Labour Party: red
Progressive Democrats: blue
Sinn Féin: green
Socialist Party: red, black

Lebanon

Mexico

PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Revolutionary Institutional Party): Red, white and Green
PRD Partido de la Revolución Democrática (Democratic Revolution Party)Yellow and Black
PAN Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party) Blue and White
PT Partido del Trabajo (Labour Party) Red
PVEM Partido Verde Ecologista de México (Ecologist Green Party of Mexico) Green
PCD Partido Convergencia para la Democracia (Democratic Convergence Party) Orange and Blue

Netherlands

Christen-Democratisch Appèl: green
ChristenUnie: blue
Democraten 66: green
GroenLinks: green, red
Lijst Pim Fortuyn: blue, yellow
Partij van de Arbeid: red
Socialistische Partij: red
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij: orange, blue
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie: blue

Norway

New Zealand

ACT: yellow and blue
Alliance: green and red
Green Party: green
Maori Party: red and black
Labour Party: red
Progressive Party: red
National Party: blue
New Zealand First: black
United Future: purple

Poland

Citizens Platform: blue and orange
Law and Justice: dark blue
Polish Peasant Party: green

Portugal

Spain

Partido Popular: blue
Partido Socialista Obrero Español: red
Communist Party of Spain: red
Bloque Nacionalista Galego: red, sky blue
Batasuna:red, green

Sweden

Switzerland

Christian Democrats: orange, gold
Evangelical People's Party: yellow, blue
Free Domcratic Party: blue, yellow
Green Party: green
Liberal Party: blue
Social Democrates: reds
Swiss People's Party: dark green

Republic of China (Taiwan)

Pan-blue coalition (blue):

Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) : blue
People First Party: orange
New Party: yellow

Pan-green coalition (green):

Democratic Progressive Party: green
Taiwan Solidarity Union: light brown

United Kingdom

Conservative Party: blue
Communist Party: red
Co-operative Party: blue (but does not campaign separately from Labour)
Green Party of England and Wales: green
Labour Party: red
Liberal Democrats: yellow
Monster Raving Loony Party: yellow and black primary, green and purple additional
Plaid Cymru: yellow
Respect Party: green and red
Scottish Green Party: green
Scottish Independence Party: purple
Scottish National Party: yellow and lilac
Scottish Socialist Party: red
UK Independence Party: mauve and gold

United States

Democratic Party: No single official colour, but increasingly associated with blue (see discussion above)
Republican Party: No single official colour, but increasingly associated with red (see discussion above)
Green Party: green
Libertarian Party: The official colour is a particular shade of blue, but the party is at times also associated with yellow.
Constitution Party: red, white, and blue
Reform Party: red and blue
Socialist Party: red

Shirts associated with right-wing parties

In the first half of the twentieth century, various fascist and other right-wing groups adopted uniforms and were often nicknamed according to the colour of their shirts:

Blackshirts: Italian camicia nera, British Union of Fascists, German Schutzstaffel
Brownshirts: German Sturmabteilung
Blueshirts: Spanish Falange, Irish Army Comrades Association, the Italian nationalists under Luigi Federzoni and the National Syndicalists of Portugal
Greenshirts: Kibbo Kift, or, alternately, Brazilian Integralists, also the Stahlhelm under Alfred Hugenberg and the Hungarian National Socialist Agricultural Labourers and Workers Party
Silvershirts: Silver Legion of America

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