Social Democratic Party of Croatia

Infobox State of former Yugoslavia Political Party
party_name = Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske
english_name = Social Democratic Party of Croatia
country = Croatia
party_
bgcolor = #FF0000
party_wikicolourid = Republican
leader = Zoran Milanović
predecessor = Ivica Račan
in_office = 1990 - 2007
foundation = 1937, 1990 [http://hidra.hr/stranke/s028354h.htm]
ideology = Social Democracy, Third Way
headquarters = Zagreb
colours = Red
website_address = http://www.SDP.hr/
website_title = SDP Website
european = Socialist International, PES (associate member), ECOSY

The Social Democratic Party of Croatia ( _hr. Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske) is the main social democratic political party in Croatia. It currently has 56 seats of the 153 in the Croatian Parliament.

Organization

The party's first and longest-serving president was Ivica Račan. The current president is Zoran Milanović.

The main bodies of the party are:
* president, deputy president, vice-presidents, secretary
* the head committee ( _hr. Glavni odbor)
* the executive committee ("Izvršni odbor")
* the supervisory committee ("Nadzorni odbor")

In addition to these, the party is composed of local branches. There are also three topical groups:
* youth forum
* women's forum
* seniors' forum

The party is governed by the Statute ("Statut"). The current version was ratified at the 9th party convention held on May 8, 2004.

History

The party evolved from the League of Communists of Croatia ( _hr. Savez komunista Hrvatske, SKH). Its delegation left the 14th congress of the Communist Parties of Yugoslavia together with the Slovenians due to an inability to cooperate with the Serbian Communist Party led by Slobodan Milošević. Yugoslavia ceased to be a socialist state shortly thereafter, and so the party added "Party of Democratic Changes" ( _hr. Stranka demokratskih promjena, SDP) to its name. In 1990 it participated in the multi-party elections of April 1990. SKH-SDP lost those elections but remained in parliamentary opposition.

On April 30, 1994 they merged with the Social Democrats of Croatia (SDH), led by Antun Vujić, to form the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (conveniently abbreviated to "SDP"). Ivica Račan remained the party's president.

2000-2003 government and back to opposition

The party formed a pre-election coalition with the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) and proceeded to win the January 2000 parliamentary elections. Račan, as the leader of the strongest party, became the prime minister of Croatia. The coalition government included ministers from SDP and HSLS, plus the coalition of Croatian Peasants Party, the Liberal Party, Croatian People's Party, and the Istrian Democratic Assembly.

The SDP-led government, though with several changes, remained in power until the next elections in November 2003. They formed pre-election coalitions with Libra (a dissenting faction of HSLS) and the Liberal Party, but failed to secure a new parliamentary majority, even with the extended coalition of 2000. It won 34 out of 151 seats.

For the 2007 elections, SDP prepeared an economic strategy by previously non-partisan economist dr. Ljubo Jurčić. In 2007, the party was hit by the death of Ivica Račan, and had to elect a new party leader on a special convention. Zoran Milanović won, beating acting chairman Željka Antunović, Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić and former foreign minister Tonino Picula.

External links

* [http://www.sdp.hr/ Official party web page]
* [http://www.sdpistre.org SDP of Istrian region]
* [http://www.noviplamen.org Novi Plamen - a magazine close to the party]