Social Democratic Party of Lithuania

The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija, LSDP) is a centre-left and social democratic political party in Lithuania. It is the oldest party in Lithuania, founded in 1896. The party's president since 2009 is Algirdas Butkevičius. The party led a minority government in the unicameral Seimas, Lithuania's Parliament from 2004-2008. The party is a member of both the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International.

History

The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania was founded on 1st of May 1896. It was the first Lithuanian political party and one of the major parties who initiated the assemnbly called Great Seimas of Vilnius in 1905. The party was one of the major political powers in Lithuanian independence period between 1918 and 1940. After the election in 1926 the party has formed left coalition government with Lithuanian Peasant Popular Union. This government was cancelled after 1926 Lithuanian coup d'état. The authoritarian regime of Antanas Smetona banned all political parties in 1936.

During the Soviet era in Lithuania no democratic political parties existed. Since 1945 party's work in exile has been organised.

In 1989 in Lithuania Social Democratic Party was restored. Kazimieras Antanavičius (economist) was elected to be party's leader. In 1990-1992 parliament the party had 9 seats. All other elections over the first decade of the second Lithuanian independece weren't very successful for the party : between 1992-1996 party had 8 seats, in the election in 1996 it won 7 seats and also 5 seats in single-seat constituencies. In 1999 party's congress elected a new leader Vytenis Andriukaitis. The negotiation between ex-communist Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania started and those members who were against that founded a new party called "Social democracy 2000" (now called "Social Democratic Union of Lithuania"). United social democratic coalition between two parties won 51 seat in Lithuanian parliament in the election in 2000. It stayed in the opposition until 2001 when the government of ex-president Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas was established.

In 2001 The Social Democratic Party of Lithuania and the Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania (the latter party was known as the Communist Party of Lithuania until 1990) have merged. After the reunification Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, the ex-president of Lithuania and the Lithuanian communist leader in the past, was elected to be the party's leader.

At the legislative elections on 10 October 2004, the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania held 20 out of the 141 seats in the Seimas. From 4 July 2006, until the parliamentary elections of 2008 the party led a centre-left minority coalition of itself, the Labour Party and New Union (Social Liberals) with 59 members of parliament in total.

Its presidential candidate, Česlovas Juršėnas, won 11.9 percent of the vote at the presidential elections on 13 June 2004.

Algirdas Brazauskas resigned from his position as party chairman on 19 May 2007, when Gediminas Kirkilas was elected.

At the legislative elections of 2008 the party gained 25 seats in the Seimas, five more than in the previous election of 2004, and 11.73 percent of the national vote. However, as its coalition partners, Labour Party and New Union (Social Liberals) lost many seats, the coalition collapsed and a new centre-right coalition was formed, led by Andrius Kubilius, who became prime minister for a second time. The coalition included the Homeland Union, National Resurrection Party, and Liberal Movement which gained a combined governmental majority of 72 out of 141 seats, took its place, leaving the Social Democratic party in opposition. On 7th of March 2009 party's congress elected the new leader Algirdas Butkevičius. He was the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania's (SDPL) candidate at the Lithuanian presidential election, 2009, coming in the second place with 11.83% of the votes.

External links

• Official website