Slovenian People's Party

Slovenian People's Party
Slovenska ljudska stranka
Leader Radovan Žerjav
Founded 1988
Headquarters Ljubljana
Ideology Conservatism
Agrarianism[1][2]
Christian democracy[3]
European affiliation European People's Party
Official colours Green and blue
National Assembly
6 / 90
Website
www.sls.si
Politics of Slovenia
Political parties
Elections

The Slovenian People's Party (Slovene: Slovenska ljudska stranka, SLS) is a rural-based conservative political party in Slovenia. Formed in 1988 under the name of Slovenian Peasant Union as the first non-Communist political organization in Yugoslavia, it merged with the Slovene Christian Democrats to form the present-day party in 2000. Since 2009, it has been led by Radovan Žerjav. SLS won 6.83% of the vote at the early 2011 Slovenian parliamentary election on 4 December 2011, thus gaining 6 seats in the National Assembly.[4]

Contents

Establishment and early years

The Slovenian People's Party was established in May 1988 under the name of Slovenian Peasant Union (Slovenska kmečka zveza) as the first openly non-Communist political organization in Slovenia and Yugoslavia after 1945. The establishment of the Slovenian Peasant Union is frequently considered as one of the crucial events in the Slovenian Spring of 1988. In January 1989 it could register as a party. In the first multi-party election in Slovenia, the Peasant Union ran as a part of the centre-right DEMOS coalition and won 11 of the 80 seats in the Slovenian Parliament. The party's name was changed to the current form in 1991,[1] alluding to the pre-war Catholic conservative Slovene People's Party.

In the 1990s, the Slovenian People's Party pursued an agrarian, ethnonationalist and corporatist ideology.[5] In late 1995, representatives of the People's Party called for a referendum to suspend the citizenship of non-ethnic Slovenes. The attempt was stopped by the Constitutional Court.[5]

Ahead of the parliamentary election of 1996, the People's Party formed the Slovenian Spring alliance together with the Slovene Christian Democrats (SKD), that referred to the historical Slovenian People's Party, as well. However the alliance, was disbanded immediately after the elections, when the SLS joined a coalition government with the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), while the SKD went into opposition. In April 2000, strains between SLS and the Liberal Democrats led to the former's withdrawal from the coalition. In early May, SLS, SKD and SDS elected Christian democrat Andrej Bajuk prime minister instead.[1]

Merger

On 15 April 2000, the Slovene Christian Democrats merged into the Slovenian People's Party,[2] and the abbreviation was temporarily changed to SLS+SKD to signify both predecessors. However, as early as in July of the same year rifts emerged, based on the question of a new electoral system. Therefore Prime Minister Bajuk, Lojze Peterle, and other centrist Christian democrats left the unified party to form New Slovenia – Christian People's Party (NSi) in August. The remaining People's Party performed poorly in the election in October 2000, but became part of the Liberal-led coalition government of Janez Drnovšek.[1]

Electoral performance since 2004

In the legislative election on 3 October 2004, the party won 6.8% of the popular vote and 7 out of 90 seats. In the 2008 election the SLS ran a joint list with the Youth Party of Slovenia. The joint list secured only 5 seats and 5.2% of the vote, a loss of 2 compared to the results of the SLS in 2004.[6]

SLS is a member of the European People's Party (EPP).

Parliamentary representation:

Presidents of the party

Other prominent members

References

  1. ^ a b c d Day, Alan John; East, Roger; Thomas, Richard (2002), "Slovenian People's Party", A political and economic dictionary of Eastern Europe (Routledge): p. 533, http://books.google.de/books?id=dt2TXexiKTgC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=slovenian%20people%27s%20party&f=false, retrieved 14 November 2011 
  2. ^ a b Zajc, Drago; Boh, Tomaž (2004), "Slovenia", The handbook of political change in Eastern Europe (Edward Elgar Publishing): p. 351, http://books.google.de/books?id=HeRzzwzdfPkC&pg=PA351&dq=new+slovenia+party&hl=de&ei=OkrdTofUHc3Qsgb37ZW9BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFMQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=slovenia%20people%27s%20party&f=false, retrieved 9 December 2011 
  3. ^ Bakke, Elisabeth (2010), "Central and East European party systems since 1989", Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989 (Cambridge University Press): p. 80, http://books.google.de/books?id=oFXdiS25N78C&pg=PA80&dq=slovenian+people%27s+party+christian+democratic&hl=de&ei=vinLTuKsAsfAswbd9dn_DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=slovenian%20people%27s%20party%20christian%20democratic&f=false, retrieved 22 November 2011 
  4. ^ "Republic of Slovenia Early Elections for Deputies to the National Assembly 2011". National Electoral Commission. http://volitve.gov.si/dz2011/en/index.html. Retrieved 16 December 2011. 
  5. ^ a b Rizman, Rudolf M. (1999), "Radical Right Politics in Slovenia", The radical right in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 (Penn State Press): pp. 155-158, http://books.google.de/books?id=QZr1vsDIvlUC&pg=PA342&dq=rizman+slovenian+people%27s+party&hl=de&ei=Go3FTpuXFsnFtAaJ6_2aBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=slovenian%20people%27s%20party&f=false, retrieved 17 November 
  6. ^ http://parties-and-elections.de/slovenia.html

External links

Parliamentary parties
Extra-parliamentary parties
Former parties