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The Party of Civic Understanding ( sk, Strana občianskeho porozumenia, SOP) was a
centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...
political party in Slovakia between 1998 and 2003. Between 1998 and 2002 the party was part of the coalition government led by
Mikuláš Dzurinda Mikuláš Dzurinda (; born 4 February 1956) is a Slovak politician who was the prime minister of Slovakia from 30 October 1998 to 4 July 2006. He is the founder and leader of the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDK) and then the Slovak Democratic a ...
, with the founder of the party,
Rudolf Schuster Rudolf Schuster (born 4 January 1934) is a Slovak politician, who served as the second president of Slovakia from 1999 to 2004. He was elected on 29 May 1999 and inaugurated on 15 June. In the presidential elections of April 2004, in which he sou ...
, being elected
President of Slovakia The president of the Slovak Republic ( sk, Prezident Slovenskej republiky) is the head of state of Slovakia and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The president is directly elected by the people for five years, and can be elected for ...
in 1999. In government the party lost support and after the 2002 election had no seats in
parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. The party dissolved on the 1 March 2003 and recommended its members join
Direction – Social Democracy Direction may refer to: *Relative direction, for instance left, right, forward, backwards, up, and down ** Anatomical terms of location for those used in anatomy ** List of ship directions *Cardinal direction Mathematics and science *Direction ...
(SMER).


Foundation and 1998 election

The Party of Civic Understanding was founded in April 1998 by the Mayor of
Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...
, Rudolf Schuster. Members of the new party included the former
Foreign Minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
Pavol Hamžík Pavol Hamžík (born 20 August 1954) is a former Foreign Minister of Slovakia from 1996 to 1997 in cabinet of Vladimír Mečiar and also member of government of prime minister Mikuláš Dzurinda. He is currently the foreign policy advisor of Rob ...
, among other prominent Slovak figures. The new party was aided by favourable publicity from the
Markíza Markíza (also known as Televízia Markíza) is a Slovak television channel launched on August 31, 1996. The channel was founded by a later politician Pavol Rusko, and is now part of the Central European Media Enterprises (CME). It also operat ...
television station. The Party of Civic Understanding aimed for left leaning voters from eastern Slovakia and disillusioned supporters of the governing
People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia Former headquarters of the ĽS-HZDS political party at Tomášikova Street 32/A in Bratislava The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia ( sk, Hnutie za demokratické Slovensko, HZDS) was a national-populist political party in Slovakia. The party ...
(HZDS). The party called for pensioners and students to get a better standard of living, but did not call for privatisations to be re-done without conditions, thereby getting some support from businessmen. It was also a strong supporter of membership of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
and
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
. The party's aim initially was to reduce the polarisation of Slovak politics, by promoting reconciliation between the government of
Vladimír Mečiar Vladimír Mečiar (; born 26 July 1942) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia three times, from 1990 to 1991, from 1992 to 1994 and from 1994 to 1998. He was the leader of the People's Party - Movement for a Democra ...
and the opposition. However as the European Union was completely opposed to the HZDS of Vladimír Mečiar, the Party of Civic Understanding refused to consider co-operating with the HZDS in government. Instead the Party of Civic Understanding joined with the other opposition parties in discussion of the upcoming election campaign and a possible coalition after the election. Two polls in June and July 1998 showed the Party of Civic Understanding in third place with either 14.2% or 18.4% of the vote, with the party leader Rudolph Schuster being the most popular figure in the country. However at the September 1998 parliamentary election the Party of Civic Understanding won only 8% of the vote and gained 13 seats in parliament, the fewest any of the parties which won seats at the election. The under performance by the party was put down to attacks by
Slovenská televízia Slovenská televízia (; "Slovak Television"; STV) was a state-owned public television organisation in Slovakia. It was created in 1991 as the Slovak part of the former Czechoslovak Television and was headquartered in Bratislava. It was funded f ...
, the state television station, and possibly voter dislike of the negative campaign by the party.


Government

Following the 1998 election, the Party of Civic Understanding joined a coalition government with the
Slovak Democratic Coalition The Slovak Democratic Coalition ( sk, Slovenská demokratická koalícia, SDK) was a political party in Slovakia, which existed from 1998 to 2002. SDK coalition The SDK was founded on 3 July 1997 as an electoral coalition, from the five politic ...
(SDK), Party of the Democratic Left (SDL) and the
Party of the Hungarian Coalition The Party of the Hungarian Community ( hu, Magyar Közösség Pártja, sk, Strana maďarskej komunity; SMK-MKP), formerly known as Party of the Hungarian Coalition ( hu, Magyar Koalíció Pártja, sk, Strana maďarskej koalície), was a politi ...
(SMK), after refusing an approach from the HZDS. The party got 2 ministerial posts in the new government, European Integration and Privatisation and a deputy prime minister. In return for not taking a third ministry, they got agreement that all the government parties would support Rudolf Schuster to become the next president. The new government had a three-fifths majority in parliament and so was able to amend the
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
to provide for the direct election of the president, instead of the previous election by parliament. As part of the coalition agreement, the leader of the Party of Civic Understanding, Rudolf Schuster, was the candidate of the coalition government for president at the 1999 election. Schuster led the first round with 47.4% of the vote and was elected president at the run-off, defeating the former
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Vladimír Mečiar by 57.2% to 42.8%. Following the presidential election, Pavol Hamžík was elected the new leader of the party in June 1999. However the party lost support in government and after the formation of Direction – Social Democracy in November 1999, the Party of Civic Understanding was at less than 5% in the polls. By 2002 the founder of Markíza,
Pavol Rusko Pavol Rusko is retired Slovak politician, television magnate and convinced fraudster. He served as the Minister of Economy of Slovakia between 2003 and 2005 and Managing Director of TV Markíza, at the time Slovakia's most viewed private TV statio ...
, no longer supported the Party of Civic Understanding and instead created his own party,
Alliance of the New Citizen The Alliance of the New Citizen (, ANO) was a liberal political party in Slovakia existing from 2001 to 2011. The acronym was a pun on ''áno'', Slovak for "yes". It was founded and led by media entrepreneur Pavol Rusko. The party positioned itsel ...
.


2002 election and merger

At the September 2002 election the Party of Civic Understanding competed on a joint list with the Party of the Democratic Left, but with only 19 places on the candidate list, compared to 108 for the Party of the Democratic Left. Before signing the agreement the Party of Civic Understanding was only getting 1% in an April 2002
opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...
. However even combined they only won 1.36% at the election and thus got no seats in parliament. On the 1 March 2003 delegates at an extraordinary congress of the Party of Civic Understanding voted for the party to dissolve. They called on all 5,000 members to join Direction – Social Democracy, while the leader of the Party of Civic Understanding, Pavol Hamžík, signed an agreement on cooperation with the leader of Direction – Social Democracy
Robert Fico Robert Fico (; born 15 September 1964) is a Slovak politician who served as the prime minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018 (when he resigned). He has been the first leader of the Direction – Social Democracy (SMER-SD) p ...
.


Leaders


References

{{Political parties in Slovakia Liberal parties in Slovakia Social democratic parties in Slovakia Defunct political parties in Slovakia Political parties established in 1998 Political parties disestablished in 2003 Direction – Social Democracy