Social Democratic Party of Slovakia
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The Social Democratic Party of Slovakia (in Slovak: Sociálnodemokratická strana Slovenska; abbreviated SDSS) was a left wing political party in Slovakia. Its last chairman, since 1993, was Jaroslav Volf, its chairman in 1992 was Alexander Dubček.
[edit] Czechoslovakia (till 1992)
The party arose after the Velvet Revolution, in January 1990, and declared that it will attempt to continue the work of the "Slovak Social Democratic Party of (the Kingdom of) Hungary" (1905-1918) and of other social democratic parties forbidden in 1948 by the Communists.
Most of the time it failed to win seats in elections. In 1992 the party gained five seats (6,1% of the votes in Slovakia) in the "House of Nations" (Sněmovna národů) of the federal parliament of Czechoslovakia, which however was only due to the fact that the party chairman was briefly Alexander Dubček, the ex-Czechoslovak leader, in 1992. Prior to his early death in November 1992, he was one of their MP's in the federal parliament.
[edit] Independent Slovakia (from 1993)
From 1994 to 1998, they were members of a coalition of parties called "Common Choice" (Spoločná voľba) that gained 10,18% (5 seats) in the Slovak parliament. They were not in the government.
After the 1998 elections, they were part of the ruling Slovak Democratic Coalition from 1998 to 2002.
After Slovakia's EU-accession (May 2004), the were part of the pan-European Party of European Socialists, along with the Party of the Democratic Left. The party was also a member of the Socialist International.
An agreement was signed with Smer (the "Direction (Social Democracy)" party), in 2003, to work closely together in all spheres. On January 1, 2005 the party was merged with Smer.
