Democratic Party (Yugoslavia)

The Yugoslav Democratic Party, State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats and Democratic Party was the name of a series of social-liberal political parties that existed in succession in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslav Democratic Party

The Yugoslav Democratic Party (Slovene: Jugoslovanska demokratska stranka) was a Slovenian liberal political party, founded in June 1918 from the merge of all three Slovene national liberal parties that had been formed since the 1890s in the Slovene-speaking parts of Austria-Hungary: the National Progressive Party in Carniola, the National Party in Styria, and the National Progressive Party in Gorizia and Gradisca.

Prominent members included:

• Ivan Tavčar
• Ivan Hribar
• Albert Kramar
• Gregor Žerjav
• Milko Brezigar

State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats

In the Spring of 1919, in Sarajevo, the State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats (Serbian Cyrillic: Државотворна странка демократа Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца / Serbian: Državnotvorna stranka demokrata Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca) is created by a merger of the Yugoslav Democratic Party with Serbian and Croatian liberal parties, namely the Independent Radical Party, the Serbian Progressive Party and the People's Party.

The elected president of the party was Ljubomir Davidović, also a president of the Assembly and a mayor of Belgrade.

The party won the majority of votes in the first elections held in 1920.

Democratic Party

In 1924, the party split between the Democratic Party (Serbo-Croat and Slovene: Demokratska stranka; Cyrillic script: Демократска странка) and the Independent Democratic Party.

The Slovenian, Croatian, Croatian Serb and Bosnian sections, led by Svetozar Pribićević, moved to the latter. The Democratic Party thus shrunk mostly to Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, while in the former Austro-Hungarian areas of the state, the Independent Democratic Party prevailed.

The Democratic Party was in and out of government, either independently or as part of a coalition, until 1929 when King Alexander abolished the constitution and created a personal dictatorship, changing the name of the country to Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Democratic Party remained in opposition until World War II.

After Davidović's death in 1940, Milan Grol took over the presidency of the party.

Following the invasion of Yugoslavia by Germany in 1941, Grol and most of the party leadership fled to United Kingdom. Some members who stayed fought either as part of Chetniks or Partisans.

After the war, the Democratic Party called for a boycott of communist-organized elections in 1945. The Communist Party (KPJ) led by Josip Broz Tito banned the Democratic Party. Its members were persecuted, some killed, some sentenced to long prison terms.

See also

• Liberalism in Serbia
• Liberalism in Croatia
• Liberalism in Slovenia

References