Political party in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Team K (TK), named Team Köllensperger from its establishment in July 2018 to November 2019, is a regionalist,[4] liberal[5][6][7] and social-liberal[4][8][9] political party active in South Tyrol, where it seeks to be an inter-ethnic centrist party.[10] Its leader is Paul Köllensperger.
TK advocates a pro-European stance,[11] direct democracy,[4] social liberalism and environmentalist policies. The party, which is close to NEOS, a liberal party in Austria, is an observer member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and, more recently, has formed a pact with More Europe for the 2019 European Parliament election.
History
The party was established on the 10 July 2018 by Paul Köllensperger, a member of the Landtag of South Tyrol.[12] Köllensperger was elected in the Landtag after the 2013 provincial election, within the Five Star Movement (M5S).[13] However, in July 2018, he left the party accusing its leadership of not being interested in promoting enough South Tyrol’s local interests and that it was necessary to establish a new party aimed at representing all the South Tyroleans looking for an inter-ethnic centrist party and aiming at breaking the absolute majority of the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP). [14]
In the 2018 provincial election the party obtained a successful 15.2% of the vote, arriving second after the SVP.[15]
In the run-up to the 2019 European Parliament election TK, which affirmed to be taking inspiration from Austria's NEOS party,[11] joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party (ALDE Party).[16][17][18][19][20] Consequently, it formed a pact with More Europe (+E), ALDE's member party in Italy, and proposed Renate Holzeisen as its candidate.[21][22][11] The list came third with 11.2% of the vote in South Tyrol and Holzeisen was the second most-voted candidate in the province, gaining nearly 23,000 votes, but she did not succeed in being elected as the list did not pass the 4% country-level electoral threshold.[23] Holzeisen later left the party, focused on opposing COVID-19 vaccines[24] and joined Vita.
In the 2023 provincial election the party obtained 11.1% of the vote, while Holzeisen-led Vita won 2.6%.
