Slovenian Democratic Party

This article deals with the SDS, the former “Social Democratic Party of Slovenia”, not to be confused with the “Social Democrats of Slovenia” ( Socialni democi ) .

Slovenska demokratska stranka Slovenian Democratic Party
Party leader	Janez Janša
founding	February 16, 1989
Headquarters	Ljubljana
Alignment	Right-wing populism , conservatism , national conservatism
Colours)	Yellow blue
Parliament seats	25/90 ( Državni zbor , 2018 )
MEPs	2/8
European party	European People's Party (EPP)
EP Group	Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
Website	www.sds.si

The Slovenian Democratic Party ( Slovenian Slovenska demokratska stranka , acronym SDS ) is a political party in Slovenia and a member of the European People's Party . Its chairman has been Janez Janša since 1993 .

history

The SDS was founded on February 16, 1989 as the Social Democratic Federation of Slovenia (Socialdemokratska zveza Slovenije SDZS) . Its first chairman was the leader of the opposition union Neodvisnost , France Tomšič , followed in November 1989 by Jože Pučnik .

For the first multi-party elections in Slovenia on April 8, 1990, the SDZS formed with other opposition parties - the Slovenian Democratic Union (Slovenska Demokratična zveza SDZ) , the Slovenian Christian Democrats (Slovenski krščanski democi SKD) , the Slovenian Farmers' Union (Slovenska kmečka zveza) , the Slovenian Craftsmen's Party (Slovenska obrtniška stranka) and the Slovenian Greens (Zeleni Slovenije) formed the electoral alliance DEMOS , which won these elections with 52% of the vote and formed a government under the Christian Democrat Lojze Peterle .

In 1992 the SDZS was renamed the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (Socialdemokratska stranka Slovenije SDSS) . On the third Party Congress in May 1993 was Janez Janša 2001 and 2005 Party Chairman re-elected to the party conventions in 1995, 1999.

Many of the current members of the SDS come from the Slovenian Democratic Union (Slovenska democična zveza SDZ) and the Slovenian Social Democratic Union (Socialdemokratska zveza Slovenije SDZS) .

In 2000 the SDS entered into an alliance with the New Slovenia party . In 2004 it was renamed the Slovenian Democratic Party.

On October 3, 2004, the SDS gained 29.1% of the vote in the Slovenian parliamentary elections and thus became the strongest force in the Slovenian parliament. Since then she has provided the Prime Minister of Slovenia with Janez Janša.

In the parliamentary elections on September 21, 2008 , the SDS achieved 29.3%; however, due to the losses of her previous coalition partners, she can no longer form a government.

In early parliamentary elections on December 4, 2011, the SDS was the second strongest political force after the newly founded Pozitivna Slovenija party . After negotiations with four smaller parties, the SDS formed a center-right coalition; Janez Janša was elected on January 28, 2012 to succeed Borut Pahor as the new Prime Minister of Slovenia.

In the run-up to the 2018 parliamentary elections , the SDS distinguished itself primarily with an anti-refugee policy and was supported in the election campaign by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán . From this election it finally emerged as the strongest force with 25% of the vote, but was still unable to form a governable majority in parliament. In 2018, a social-liberal minority government was formed from a coalition of five parties, led by the LMŠ, who stood for the first time in the 2018 parliamentary elections, without the participation of the SDS, with the tolerance of the eco-socialist party Levica.

Party tradition

The SDS sees itself as the successor to the Yugoslav Social Democratic Party (Jugoslovanska socialdemokratska stranka JSDS) founded in Ljubljana on August 15 and 16, 1896 , which saw itself as a workers' party in all south Slav regions of Austria-Hungary , was banned in 1941 and again in 1945.

Party youth

The youth organization SDM (Slovenska demokratska mladina) founded in October 1989 is the oldest and currently largest party youth organization in Slovenia. Its first chairman was Matej Makarovič , currently Nikolaj Oblak.

classification

The SDS is classified as right-wing populist by Wolfgang Ismayr (2010) and Klaus Wahl (2020) .

literature

• Arno Weckbecker and Frank Hoffmeister, The Development of Political Parties in Former Yugoslavia , 1997 ( ISBN 3-486-56336-X ), p. 239

Web links

Commons : Slovenian Democratic Party  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Party homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Standard : Janez Jansa elected new Prime Minister , January 28, 2012.
2. ↑ Wolfgang Ismayr: The political systems of Eastern Europe in comparison. In the S. (Ed.): The political systems of Eastern Europe. 3rd, updated edition, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2010, p. 63; Klaus Wahl: The Radical Right: Biopsychological Roots and International Variations. Palgrave Macmillian, Munich 2020, p. 201.