Liberal Democracy of Slovenia

Last updated
Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
Liberalna demokracija Slovenije
Leader Tone Anderlič
Founded12 March 1994
Merger ofLiberal Democratic Party
Democratic Party
Socialist Party of Slovenia
Greens – Ecological Social Party
Headquarters Ljubljana
Youth wing Young Liberal Democracy
Ideology Liberalism [1] [2] [3]
Social liberalism [4]
Pro-Europeanism
Political position Centre [5] to centre-left [6]
National affiliation LIDE-DeSUS-LDS
European affiliation ALDE (formerly)
International affiliation Liberal International (formerly)
European Parliament group ALDE (2004–2014)
Colours Light blue
National Assembly
0 / 90
European Parliament
0 / 8
Municipal council
4 / 2,750
Website
http://www.lds.si

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (Slovene : Liberalna demokracija Slovenije, LDS) is a social-liberal [7] political party in Slovenia. Between 1992 and 2004, it (and its main predecessor, the Liberal Democratic Party) was the largest (and ruling) party in the country. In the 2011 Slovenian parliamentary election, it failed to win entry to the Slovenian National Assembly. The party was a member of the Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Contents

The LDS dominated Slovenian politics during the first decade following independence. Except for a brief interruption in 2000, it held the parliamentary majority between 1994 and 2004, when it lost the election to the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party. The loss was followed by decline, infighting and political fragmentation. In the runup to the 2008 parliamentary election the LDS joined in an unofficial coalition with the Social Democrats and Zares, but lost nearly 80% of its seats, dropping from 23 to just 5 and becoming the smallest parliamentary party. In the 2011 parliamentary election on 4 December 2011, its support collapsed even further: it won only 1.48% of the vote, not reaching the parliamentary threshold of 4%. [8] It has not regained seats in parliament or a place as a major political force since, only retaining minor relevance at a local level in some municipalities.

History

In 1990, the well-known Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek was the candidate for the Presidency of Slovenia (an auxiliary body of the President of the Republic, abolished in 1992) for one of the LDS' predecessor parties, the Union of Socialist Youth of Slovenia – Liberal Party (later the Liberal Democratic Party).

The LDS formed a part of governing coalitions of Slovenia from 1992 to 2004, with an interruption for a few months in 2000. The first Prime Minister of Slovenia from LDS was Janez Drnovšek, who later became the President of Slovenia in 2002 and was succeeded by Anton Rop, former Finance Minister.

At the 2004 European election, LDS won 21.9% of the vote, which yielded two seats in the European Parliament out of Slovenia's allocation of seven. At the 2004 elections, the LDS party suffered a considerable loss of votes. The Slovenian Democratic Party became the largest party, and the LDS went into opposition. The party held 23 seats (22.8% votes) in the National Assembly until 2007, when 12 members resigned from the party.

Following the defeat of 2004, the party suffered a severe internal crisis. In 2005, Anton Rop resigned as president and was succeeded by Jelko Kacin. Two years later, a group led by Matej Lahovnik and the former Secretary General of the party Gregor Golobič left the LDS and founded a new social liberal political party called Zares, while several other prominent members left for the Social Democrats, including the former Prime Minister Anton Rop. Following these events, Jelko Kacin resigned as President and was succeeded by Katarina Kresal. Following Kresal's election as president, several other prominent members, including former Health Minister Dušan Keber, decided to leave the party as well.

In 2008, the party won 5,3% of the votes and entered the centre-left coalition led by the Social Democrat Borut Pahor, with two ministers in the government. In the early elections of 2011, the party failed to enter the Parliament.

In the 2022 Slovenian Presidential Elections, the party endorsed Ivo Vajgl, their former member.

Parliamentary representation

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia

Prominent members

Presidents
Other prominent members
Other prominent former members

Electoral results

Parliament

ElectionVotes %Seats+/–PositionGovernment
1990 156,84314.5
12 / 80
+122ndOpposition
1992 278,85123.5
22 / 90
+101stCoalition
1996 278,88327.0
25 / 90
+31stCoalition
2000 390,30636.3
34 / 90
+91stCoalition
2004 220,84822.8
23 / 90
-112ndOpposition
2008 54,7715.2
5 / 90
-187thCoalition
2011 16,2681.5
0 / 90
-59thExtraparliamentary

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anton Rop</span> Slovenian politician

Anton Rop is a Slovenian politician. Currently, he is a vice-president of European Investment Bank. He was Prime Minister of Slovenia, from 2002 to 2004. Until 2005 he was also the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, the legal successor of the Slovenian Association of Socialist Youth. On 20 March 2007 he left the party and joined the Social Democrats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slovenian People's Party</span> Political party in Slovenia

The Slovenian People's Party is a conservative, agrarian, Christian-democratic political party in Slovenia. Formed in 1988 under the name of Slovenian Peasant Union as the first democratic political organization in Yugoslavia, it changed its name to Slovenian People's Party in 1992. On 15 April 2000 it merged with the Slovene Christian Democrats to form the SLS+SKD Slovenian People's Party, and changed its name in 2001 to Slovenian People's Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Democrats (Slovenia)</span> Centre-left political party in Slovenia

The Social Democrats is a centre-left and pro-European social-democratic political party in Slovenia led by Tanja Fajon. From 1993 until 2005, the party was known as the United List of Social Democrats. It is the successor of the League of Communists of Slovenia. As of 2022, the party is a member of a three-party coalition government with Robert Golob's Freedom Movement alongside The Left, as well as a full member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimitrij Rupel</span> Slovenian politician (born 1946)

Dimitrij Rupel is a Slovenian politician.

This article gives an overview of liberalism in Slovenia. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jelko Kacin</span> Slovenian politician

Jelko Kacin is a Slovenian politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 Slovenian presidential election</span> Slovenian presidential election of 2007

Presidential elections were held in Slovenia in October and November 2007 to elect the successor to the second President of Slovenia Janez Drnovšek. France Cukjati, the President of the National Assembly, called the elections on 20 June 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivo Vajgl</span> Slovenian politician

Ivo Vajgl is a Slovenian politician and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Slovenia. In his second term in the European Parliament he was a member of DeSUS and an individual member of the European Democratic Party (EDP), while in the European Parliament he was a member of the ALDE Group. He has announced his candidacy in the 2022 Slovenian presidential election.

Zares – Social Liberals was a social-liberal political party in Slovenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Erjavec</span> Slovenian lawyer and politician

Karl Viktor Erjavec is a Slovenian lawyer and politician who served in the government of Slovenia as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2018. He was the president of the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, having held the position from 2005 to January 2020 and again from December 2020 until March 2021. He was Minister of Defense from 2004 to 2008 and 2018 to 2020 and Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning from 2008 to 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregor Virant</span> Slovenian politician and public servant

Gregor Virant is a Slovenian politician and public servant. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as Minister of Public Administration in Janez Janša's first government, between 2011–2013 he was Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia. He also served as Minister of the Interior and Public Administration in the government of Alenka Bratušek between 2013 and 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregor Golobič</span> Slovenian politician

Gregor Golobič is a Slovenian politician. Between 2007 and 2012 he was president of the left liberal party Zares and between November 2008 and June 2011, he served as Minister for Science and Higher Education of Slovenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pavel Gantar</span> Slovenian politician and sociologist

Pavel Gantar, also known as Pavle Gantar is a Slovenian politician and sociologist. Between 2008 and 2011, he served as speaker of the Slovenian National Assembly. From February 2012 and to their dissolvation in 2015, he has been the president of the social liberal extra-parliamentary party Zares.

The Democratic Party of Slovenia is an extra-parliamentary centrist political party in Slovenia. It was established in March 1994, when the majority of the then existing Democratic Party led by Dimitrij Rupel joined the ruling Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. A minority of the party membership decided to stay in opposition and continue the legacy of the Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alenka Bratušek</span> Slovenian politician (born 1970)

Alenka Bratušek is a Slovenian politician. She was Prime Minister of Slovenia from March 2013 until May 2014, the first woman in Slovenia to hold this position. She was president pro tempore of the Positive Slovenia party from January 2013 until April 2014. On 5 May 2014, Bratušek submitted her resignation as prime minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Party of Alenka Bratušek</span> Slovene political party

The Party of Alenka Bratušek was a political party in Slovenia. The party was founded on 31 May 2014 as the Alliance of Alenka Bratušek. The party was formed by Alenka Bratušek, who resigned as Prime Minister of Slovenia on 5 May 2014, and other former members of Positive Slovenia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 European Parliament election in Slovenia</span>

2014 European Parliament elections were held in Slovenia on 25 May 2014. It was the first in the series of three elections held in the 2014, and the major test leading up to the parliamentary elections in July. The political atmosphere was in a crisis that started with the fall of Borut Pahor's government, then Janez Janša's government in 2013, the latter coming after Janša was accused of corruption. The cabinet of Alenka Bratušek was breaking up, as the former leader of the Positive Slovenia Zoran Janković, who was under the suspicion of corruption, announced his candidature for party president, even though the coalition parties threatened to leave the government if he was to be elected, which later he was.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marjan Šarec</span> 9th Prime Minister of Slovenia

Marjan Šarec is a Slovenian politician, actor and comedian who served as prime minister of Slovenia from 2018 to 2020. He has served as the minister of defence in the government of Prime Minister Robert Golob since 1 June 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Slovenian parliamentary election</span>

Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 24 April 2022 to elect all 90 members of the National Assembly.

References

  1. ↑ José Magone (26 August 2010). Contemporary European Politics: A Comparative Introduction. Routledge. pp. 457–. ISBN   978-0-203-84639-1 . Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Paul G. Lewis (2000). Political Parties in Post-Communist Eastern Europe. Routledge. pp. 51–. ISBN   978-0-415-20182-7 . Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2011). "Slovenia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 24 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Hloušek, Vít; Kopeček, Lubomír (2010), Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared, Ashgate, pp. 114–115
  5. ↑ Day, Alan John; East, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2002), "Liberal Democracy of Slovenia", A political and economic dictionary of Eastern Europe, Routledge, p. 331, ISBN   9780203403747 , retrieved 14 November 2011
  6. ↑ J. Lodge (2016). "desus"+centre-left&pg=PA223 The 2004 Elections to the European Parliament. Routledge. p. 223. ISBN   9780230523821 . Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  7. ↑ Igor Guardiancich (21 August 2012). Pension Reforms in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: From Post-Socialist Transition to the Global Financial Crisis. Routledge. pp. 194–. ISBN   978-1-136-22595-6.
  8. ↑ "Republic of Slovenia Early Elections for Deputies to the National Assembly 2011: Election results". National Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  9. ↑ Slovenskenovice.si - Vse stranke premierke Bratušek in ministra Jakiča
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.