Social Democratic Union

"This article is about the current Social Democratic Union, a minor Latvian political party founded in 2002. There is a separate article on the Latvian Social Democratic Union of the late 19th and early 20th century".

The Social Democratic Union (Latvian: "Sociāldemokrātu savienība", abbreviated SDS) is a political party in Latvia formed by a splinter group from the Latvian Social Democratic Labour Party (LSDSP) after the leader of the Social Democrats' faction in the Saeima, Egils Baldzēns, lost to Juris Bojārs in the elections for party chairman on 27 October 2001. The major factor in the schism was the increasing intimacy between the LSDSP and the For Human Rights in United Latvia Bloc, considered to be excessively pro-Russian by the more nationalist Social Democrats in Baldzēns' breakaway wing of the party. The newly formed SDS held its founding congress in Riga on 24 March 2002. In the last legislative elections, 5 October 2002, the party won 1.5% of the popular vote and no seats.

Except in name, the current Social Democratic Union is not related to the Latvian Social Democratic Union of 1892-1913 (from 1913 the Latvian Revolutionary Socialist Party).

External links

* [http://www.socialdemokrati.lv/en/facts.htm Official web site]