The party was founded in 2003, after members of the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party left in protest of the leadership's decision of unify with the Christian Democratic Union, another Christian Democratic party. The newly founded party retained the original party's statute and program, but was unable to keep its name and thus adopted a slightly altered one.[3] The party's formation was initiated by former Minister of EducationZigmas Zinkevičius and dissident and Catholic priest Alfonsas Svarinskas.[4] They were opposed to cooperation with Kazys Bobelis, chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, who, according to them, had conspired with "kolchoz chairmen" (referring to the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania) during municipal elections.[5]
The party's first chairman was Ignacas Uždavinys, who remained until 2008.[3] The party's next chairman, Vincentas Lamanauskas, joined the Christian Party in 2010.[6] It first participated in the 2011 local elections and received 1199 votes, or 0.1 percent of the total vote.[7] It performed worse in the 2019 local elections, where it only received 811 votes, or 0.09 percent of the total vote,[8] and did not contest the 2023 local elections.
On 8 January 2024, Mindaugas Puidokas, former Member of the Seimas from the Labour Party, joined the party and was elected as its chairman. The party made the decision to contest Seimas and European Parliament elections for the first time in its history.[9] Puidokas had resigned from the Labour Party in March 2022, after the party distanced himself from his comments on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which he blamed the outbreak of the war on NATO aggression.[10]
^A more accurate translation of the party's name would be Party of Christian Democracy, however, Christian Democracy Party is generally used in English versions of Lithuanian media. Christian Democratic Party is also used, but is generally reserved for the historical Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party.
