HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party ( sk, Slovenská demokratická a kresťanská únia – Demokratická strana, SDKÚ-DS) was a
liberal-conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...
,
Christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
political party in Slovakia This article lists political parties in Slovakia. Slovakia has a democratic multi-party system with numerous political parties, established after the fall of communism in 1989 and shaped into the present form with Slovakia's independence in 1993. ...
. The SDKÚ-DS was a member of the
Centrist Democrat International The Centrist Democrat International ( es, Internacional Demócrata de Centro) is a Christian-democratic political international. Until 2001, it was known as the Christian Democrat International (CDI); before 1999, it was known as the Christian D ...
and was a member of the
European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...
until 2018, when it was expelled. SDKÚ was a major right-wing conservative party in Slovakia for 12 years. During their governance, Slovakia became member of
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
North Atlantic Treaty Organization 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 ...
. SDKÚ-DS was marginalized after the 2012 parliamentary election, when it received only 6% of votes. In another four years it lost the most of its MPs and the party received only 0.26% of votes in 2016 leaving it without parliamentary representation. The party remains inactive since.


History


Foundation

In 1998, SDK was created as coalition of five small centre-right and centre-left parties intending to contest the Slovak parliamentary elections that year. The initial agreement was to form a party with 150 members and dissolve it after elections in 1998. After successful 1998 elections, SDK formed government with KDH, SDĽ and SMK-MKP. This initial agreement was not successful, and Prime Minister
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 ...
(KDH) announced formation of new party - Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ). Some SDK members joined the new party while others returned to their original parties. The new party was registered on 18 February 2000. On 17 November Constitution congress elected Mikuláš Dzurinda as chairman, vice chairmen being Edvard Kukan, Zuzana Martináková, Milan Kňažko and Ľubomír Harach. Gabriel Palacka became responsible for finances.


First time in government: 1998–2006

After its creation, majority of ministers of Slovak government were members of SDKÚ. SDKÚ was considered to be most reform oriented party. Its coalition partners were
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 ...
,
Party of Civic Understanding The Party of Civic Understanding ( sk, Strana občianskeho porozumenia, SOP) was a centre-left political party in Slovakia between 1998 and 2003. Between 1998 and 2002 the party was part of the coalition government led by Mikuláš Dzurinda, with t ...
and Party of the Democratic Left. In the parliamentary election of 17 June 2006, the party won 18.4% of the popular vote and 31 out of 150 seats in the National Council. Despite losing a large number of votes, the party was still able to form coalition government with former partners such as the
Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian-democratic political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and an observer of the Centrist Democrat International. H ...
,
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 ...
and new 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 ...
. However, the opposition centre-left populist Smer-SD could able to form coalition with
Slovak National Party The Slovak National Party ( sk, Slovenská národná strana, SNS) is a nationalist political party in Slovakia. The party characterizes itself as a nationalist party based on both social and the European Christian values. Since 1990 SNS has won ...
and


Second time in government: 2010–2012

For the 2010 parliamentary election, Dzurinda yielded the number-one slot on the party's list to
Iveta Radičová Iveta Radičová (; born 7 December 1956) served as the first woman prime minister of Slovakia from 2010 to 2012. She led a coalition government, in which she also briefly held the post of Minister of Defence in the last five months of the coalit ...
, though he remained party chairman. In this election, the party won 15.42% of popular vote corresponding to 28 seats in the National Council. Iveta Radičová become the first female prime minister in history of Slovakia, by forming a new centre-right coalition government consisted of SDKÚ-DS, SaS, MOST-HÍD and KDH. By custom, president
Ivan Gašparovič Ivan Gašparovič (; born 27 March 1941) is a Slovak politician and lawyer who was third president of Slovakia from 2004 to 2014. He was also the first and currently the only Slovak president to be re-elected. Biography Ivan Gašparovič was ...
first gave charge to form a new government to winning party SMER-SD and its leader Robert Fico, who was unable to do so due to Smer-SD and SNS only having 71 seats. The centre-right coalition Government collapsed on 11 October 2011 after lost confidence in parliament. Radičová subsequently decided not take candidacy in next elections and served as prime minister until a social democratic government took office on 4 April 2012.


2012 election

Mikuláš Dzurinda led party to 2012 parliamentary election. The party was defeated badly, receiving just 6.09% of the votes and losing more than half of its seats. Dzurinda chose to resign from his position as the chairman of SKDU, and a party congress was held on 19 May 2012 so that a new leader could be chosen.
Pavol Frešo Pavol Frešo (born 21 April 1969) is a Slovak former politician who was the last chairman of SDKÚ-DS, Governor of the Bratislava Region, and an MP of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. Life Frešo was born on 21 April 1969 in Br ...
,
Lucia Žitňanská Lucia Žitňanská (born 3 June 1964) is a Slovak politician and member of Most–Híd. She served as Minister of Justice in the third government of Robert Fico from 2016–2018. In 2006 she served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Justic ...
and Viliam Novotný were the candidates, Frešo finally won with 242 out of 404 votes. Lucia Žitňanská received 142 votes and announced she will not be a candidate for the position of vice-chairperson. In the
2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...
, SDKÚ-DS came third place nationally, receiving 7.75% of the vote and electing 2 MEPs. Out of 11 PMs elected in 2012 only 1 remained in the party as of 2015.


2016 election

The party was led by Pavol Frešo. However, during the previous term SDKÚ-DS practically fell apart from inside, when its own members of parliament chose to leave the party. As a result, Frešo has a tough position and even if his campaign was led along with Slovak right-wing consensus against the SMER-SD party, it failed. While gaining only 0,27% of votes and losing 95% of its previous voters in the election of 5.3.2016, the party has received its worst result in history. SDKÚ-DS has won only in one village, Pavlovce in
Rimavská Sobota District Rimavská Sobota District (''okres Rimavská Sobota'') is a district in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia. The district was first established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its present borders. The population density is approximatel ...
. Frešo has commented that SDKÚ-DS as the only party has defended openly
pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Polit ...
ideas, opposing the building of fences against the immigrants in
European migrant crisis The 2015 European migrant crisis, also known internationally as the Syrian refugee crisis, was a period of significantly increased movement of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015, when 1.3 million people came to the continent to reques ...
. The chairman said that the situation was a big challenge for the presidium.


Decline and dissolution

A party congress was held on 2 July 2016. Pavol Frešo stepped down from leadership of the party. New Vice-Chairmans were elected. The leader was expected to be elected later in 2016. It was reported in April 2018 that party de facto ceased to exist as it lacks membership and structure. The party was expelled from
European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...
as a result. Igor Rattaj took over party's property and became owner of Party's trademark during September 2018. Rattaj stated that party is now only the Trademark and he will sell it if anyone expresses interest. Leader of the Party Milan Roman at the time ran for the position of Mayor in Skalice as an independent candidate.


Ideology

SDKÚ-DS were a
centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...
liberal conservative Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by li ...
party, presenting itself as an alternative to the
social-democratic Social democracy is a Political philosophy, political, Social philosophy, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocati ...
and
populist Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...
ideology of the
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-SD) party. After the
general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
in 2010, SDKÚ-DS reached an agreement with other centre-right parties and formed the government of Slovakia. The party criticised the policies of
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 ...
's Smer-SD party, calling them irresponsible, unsustainable and populist. SDKÚ-DS was the fifth largest party in the National Council during years 2012–2016. Its policy included continuing in reforms that took place before 2006, including tax reform, welfare benefits cuts, pensions reform, healthcare reform etc. SDKÚ-DS was then organised into four sections: * Team for recovery and modernisation, led by
Ivan Mikloš Ivan Mikloš (born 2 June 1960) is a Slovak politician and the former Minister of Finance of Slovakia (2010–2012). He previously served as Slovakia's Minister of Finance from 2002 to 2006, and Deputy Prime Minister for Economy between 1998 and 2 ...
, * Team for a dignified life, led by
Iveta Radičová Iveta Radičová (; born 7 December 1956) served as the first woman prime minister of Slovakia from 2010 to 2012. She led a coalition government, in which she also briefly held the post of Minister of Defence in the last five months of the coalit ...
, * Anti-crisis team, led by newcomer
Eugen Jurzyca Eugen Jurzyca (born 8 February 1958) is a Slovak economist and a politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Slovakia and has served as a Member of the Bureau of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group since ...
, * Team for law and justice, led by
Lucia Žitňanská Lucia Žitňanská (born 3 June 1964) is a Slovak politician and member of Most–Híd. She served as Minister of Justice in the third government of Robert Fico from 2016–2018. In 2006 she served as deputy prime minister and Minister of Justic ...
. The main partners of SDKÚ-DS were politically similar parties:
Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian-democratic political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and an observer of the Centrist Democrat International. H ...
,
Freedom and Solidarity Freedom and Solidarity ( sk, Sloboda a solidarita, SaS) is a liberal political party in Slovakia. Established in 2009, SaS is led by its founder and economist Richard Sulík, who designed Slovakia's flat tax system. It generally holds libertari ...
, and Most-Híd. Until 2012, these parties were in a
coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
with SDKÚ-DS.


Election results


National Council


Presidential


European Parliament


References


External links


Official website (English section)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slovak Democratic and Christian Union - Democratic Party Catholic political parties Member parties of the European People's Party 2000 establishments in Slovakia Political parties established in 2000 Political parties disestablished in 2018 Christian democratic parties in Slovakia Liberal conservative parties in Slovakia