Social Democratic Party of Croatia

The Social Democratic Party of Croatia ( kroat. Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske, SDP) is a social democratic party in Croatia.

The SDP grew out of the former Communist Party of Croatia ( SKH ). In the first free elections in the spring of 1990, she joined with two strong wings as SKH- SDP and won nearly 22 percent of the vote. The Communist wing under Stanko Stojčević was for slow economic reforms with the aim of a reformed socialism. The progressive wing with Ivica Račan entered in a sovereign Croatia for political pluralism.

The reform wing prevailed after the elections in 1990 and at the Congress of 3 November 1990, the party was renamed Stranka demokratskih promjena (SDP, Party of Democratic Changes ). The SDP was transformed into a Croatian Social Democratic Party. Many Communist members and a large part of the deputies left the party. The SDP under the leadership trio Ivica Račan, Zdravko Tomac and Dušan Bilandžić lost its importance.

The SDP spoke to mainly urban voters and mostly stayed back with criticism of the policies of the HDZ. In August 1992, the party won eleven seats in the parliamentary elections, eight of the Serb minority votes.

In April 1993, the party called for in Socijaldemokratska Partija Hrvatske.

In the 1995 elections the party won 8.9 percent of the vote, which corresponded to 10 seats and a surprisingly good result was.

In the summer of 1999, the SDP and the social-liberal HSLS merged to form an opposition center-left coalition and won the parliamentary elections on January 3, 2000 with 45 percent of the vote. Obtained together with a opposition coalition of six smaller parties the opposition a comfortable majority in parliament. The ruling for ten years HDZ was thus replaced in power. Prime Minister was the SDP chairman Ivica Račan. The presidential candidate of the Alliance of SDP and HSLS, the HSLS leader Drazen Budiša, could not obtain Stipe Mesic compared with 44 percent of the vote the majority of votes in the second ballot on 7 February 2000. After the 2003 parliamentary elections, the government majority was lost and the SDP joined the opposition, where it was the most important opposition party in Croatia.

After the 2007 parliamentary elections, the SDP had indeed greatly gained votes because the HSLS party opted for a government coalition with the HDZ, SDP remained in opposition.

Since June 2, 2007 Zoran Milanovic is party chairman.

The end of 2010 was the Kukuriku coalition to compete with the target in the parliamentary elections on December 4, 2011 in conjunction with HNS, IDS, HSU, was founded.

On 4 December 2011, the Kukuriku coalition led by the SDP most votes fraction and since then has been the government.

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