Direction – Social Democracy

Direction – Social Democracy

The Direction – Social Democracy ( _sk. Smer – sociálna demokracia) party — before January 1 2005 called Direction (the Third Way) ("Smer (tretia cesta)") —, often just "Smer", is a political party in Slovakia, led by Robert Fico. It is considered to be Social Democratic.

It arose by splitting from the Party of the Democratic Left ("Strana demokratickej ľavice, SDĽ") in 1999 (Robert Fico being the most popular SDL member at that time) and quickly became one of the most popular parties in Slovakia, while the popularity of the SDĽ, which was the successor of the original (i.e. pre-1990) Communist Party of Slovakia and was a government party from 1998 to 2002, was steadily decreasing.

As of 2004, it was the third largest party in the National Council of the Slovak Republic, with 25 out of 150 seats. As of early 2005, it was in the first place among all Slovak political parties in opinion polls with 30% support.

As from January 1, 2005, Smer merged with the small social democratic parties:
*Party of the Democratic Left (see above)
*Social Democratic Alternative ("Sociálnodemokratická alternatíva"; a small modern-style social democratic party that split from the SDĽ somewhat later than Smer did), and
*Social Democratic Party of Slovakia ("Sociálnodemokratická strana Slovenska"; founded in 1990, the party became known under the leadership of Alexander Dubček).

The resulting entity was renamed Smer – Social Democracy.

In the parliamentary election of 17 June 2006, the party won 29.1% of the popular vote and 50 out of 150 seats. It subsequently arranged to head a governing coalition that includes the Slovak National Party (SNS). The Party of European Socialists (with which Smer is affiliated) regards SNS as a party of the racist far-right, and it reacted to news of the coalition by expressing its gravest concern. The PES suspended Smer's candidacy on 12 October 2006 and decided to review the situation in June 2007. The decision was then extended until February 2008, when Smer's candidacy was readmitted by PES.

Smer provides the following members of the current government:

* Robert Fico (prime minister)
* Ján Kubiš (minister of foreign affairs)
* Dušan Čaplovič (deputy prime minister)
* Robert Kaliňák (deputy prime minister and minister of the interior)
* Ľubomír Jahnátek (minister of the economy)
* Ján Počiatek (minister of finance)
* Marek Maďarič (minister of culture)
* Viera Tomanová (minister of labour, social affairs and family)
* Jaroslav Baška (minister of defence)
* Ivan Valentinovič (minister of health)
* Ľubomír Vážny (minister of transportation, posts and communication)

ee also

*Politics of Slovakia
*List of political parties in Slovakia

External links

* [http://www.strana-smer.sk/ Official party website]


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