The Slovak Democratic Coalition ( sk, Slovenská demokratická koalícia, SDK) was a political party in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, which existed from 1998 to 2002.

SDK coalition

The SDK was founded on 3 July 1997 as an electoral coalition, from the five political parties, namely Democratic Union,

Christian Democratic Movement The Christian Democratic Movement ( sk, Kresťanskodemokratické hnutie, KDH) is a Christian democracy, Christian-democratic List of political parties in Slovakia, political party in Slovakia that is a member of the European People's Party (EPP ...

, Democratic Party,

Social Democratic Party of Slovakia The Social Democratic Party of Slovakia ( sk, Sociálnodemokratická strana Slovenska, SDSS) was a centre-left political party in Slovakia. Its last chairman, since 1993, was , and its chairman in 1992 was Alexander Dubček. Czechoslovakia (unt ...

and Green Party in Slovakia. It had great chance to win parliament elections in 1998. The leaders of this coalition were chiefs of respective parties, with

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 ...

as its speaker. The ruling government coalition with the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia as a leader, in response passed a law, which restricted candidature of such coalitions. As a reaction of passing an "anti-coalition" law, the SDK transferred itself from electoral coalition into a political party with 150 members, with each one being a candidate into the

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

SDK in government

Although Movement for a Democratic Slovakia narrowly won the parliamentary election in 1998 with 27% of the vote, it was unable to form a government coalition. Instead, the SDK, which finished second with 26.33% of the vote formed government coalition with three other parties - Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ) (14.66%),

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) (9.12%) and

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 ...

(SOP) (8.01%). The new government gained nickname "Government of Changes", from its election campaign, with Mikuláš Dzurinda as its prime minister. The party formally ceased to exist on August 2002, shortly before the elections in 2002, although it started to dissolve in 2000/2001, when some of the members left the party to join the newly established Slovak Democratic and Christian Union.

References

*''This article was translated from the corresponding article from the Slovak Wikipedia.'' {{Authority control Defunct political parties in Slovakia Political party alliances in Slovakia Christian Democratic Movement Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party Political parties established in 1997 Political parties disestablished in 2002 1997 establishments in Slovakia