The Social Democratic Party of Slovakia ( sk, Sociálnodemokratická strana Slovenska, SDSS) 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 A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

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 ...

. Its last chairman, since 1993, was , and its chairman in 1992 was

Alexander Dubček Alexander Dubček (; 27 November 1921 – 7 November 1992) was a Slovak politician who served as the First Secretary of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) (''de facto'' leader of Czechoslovak ...

Czechoslovakia (until 1992)

The party arose after the

Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution ( cs, Sametová revoluce) or Gentle Revolution ( sk, Nežná revolúcia) was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations agains ...

, in January 1990, and declared that it will attempt to continue the work of the "Slovak Social Democratic Party of (the Kingdom of) Hungary" (1905–1918) and of other social democratic parties forbidden in 1948 by the Communists. Most of the time it failed to win seats in elections. In 1992 the party gained five seats (6.1% of the votes in Slovakia) in the "House of Nations" (Sněmovna národů) of the federal parliament of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, which however was only because the party chairman was briefly

, the ex-Czechoslovak leader, in 1992. Prior to his early death in November 1992, he was one of their MPs in the federal parliament.

Independent Slovakia (from 1993)

From 1994 to 1997, the SDSS was a member of a coalition called "

Common Choice Common Choice (''Spoločná voľba'') was an election union in Slovakia from 1994 to 1997. Members were the post-communist '' Party of the Democratic Left'' (''SDL''), the ''Social Democratic Party of Slovakia'' (''SDSS''), the minor ''Farmers' Mo ...

" (''Spoločná voľba'') that gained 10.18% (5 seats) in the Slovak parliament. They did not form a part of the government. Following the 1998 elections, they joined the ruling

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 ...

until 2002. When Slovakia became a member 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 ...

(on 1 May 2004), they were a part of the pan-European

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a social democratic and progressive European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all member states of the European Union (EU) plus Norway and the United Kingdom ...

, along with the Party of the Democratic Left. The SDSS was also a member of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...

. In 2003, an agreement was signed with the Direction (''Smer'') party to work closely together in all spheres. On 1 January 2005 the SDSS finally merged with Direction to form

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 ...

References

{{Authority control Political parties established in 1990 Political parties disestablished in 2005 Former member parties of the Socialist International Direction – Social Democracy Social democratic parties in Slovakia