Social Democratic Union (Croatia)
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Social Democratic Union (Croatian: Socijalnodemokratska unija) is now a marginal left-wing party in Croatia.
It was founded in 1992, following Croatian independence, being one of very few political parties to identify itself as left-wing. Most of their members were former Communists or left-wingers displeased with the way nonimally left-wing Social Democratic Party of Croatia embraced Croatian nationalism and did nothing to stop excesses of privatisation and human rights abuses of ethnic minorities. First leader of the party was Branko Horvat, noted economist and one of the few Croatian intellectuals to oppose dissolution of Yugoslavia. In early 1990s SDU was one of the few political parties to openly advocate co-operation and integration of Croatia with other republics of former Yugoslavia.
Because of such views, so different from Croatian political mainstream, SDU was considered a marginal political factor in Croatia. On 1992 parliamentary elections it turned out that SDU nevertheless enjoyed some degree of support, especially among ethnic Serbs living in government-controlled territories. Although it failed to break 2 % vote tresshold necessary for direct representation in Croatian Parliament, SDU could have hoped to win three seats by fulfilling the constitutional quota of ethnic Serbs in Sabor. Instead, Croatian Constitutional Court, in one of the most controversial decisions in their history, ruled that the seats should go to Serb Peoples' Party as "etnnic party", and presumably the only true representative of ethnic Serb minority, despite SNS winning less votes than SDU.
SDU was not discouraged with this setback. It had some sort of success of local elections, held few months later. But the biggest boost for SDU came with parliamentary status, gained when Vladimir Bebić, colourful member of Sabor of Rijeka, decided to join their ranks. Bebić, who enjoyed great deal of popularity among Croatian public, gradually became party's leader. On 1995 elections he managed to increase SDU's vote margin, but with increased vote threshold, SDU failed to enter Sabor. This, appearance of more mainstream left-wing parties and establishment of rejunevated SDP as Croatia's main opposition party, led to SDU becoming more marginalised, struck with internal divisions and gradually phased out in late 1990s.
After Socialist Labour Party of Croatia was formed, many members joined that organization.
SDU formed joint lists for local elections in 2004 with Socialist Labour Party of Croatia, Green party and Green Left of Croatia but failed to enter any of the regional assemblies.
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