Liberal Democracy of Slovenia ( sl, Liberalna demokracija Slovenije, LDS) is a social-liberal political party in Slovenia. Between 1992 and 2004 it was the largest (and ruling) party in the country. In the 2011 Slovenian parliamentary election, it failed to win entry to the Slovenian

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

. The party was a member of the

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...

and the

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europ ...

. The LDS dominated Slovenian politics during the first decade following independence. Except for a brief interruption in 2000, it held the parliamentary majority between 1994 and 2004, when it lost the election to the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party. The loss was followed by decline, infighting and political fragmentation. In the runup to the 2008 parliamentary election the LDS joined in an unofficial coalition with the Social Democrats and

Zares Zares – Social Liberals ( sl, Zares – socialno-liberalni) was a social-liberal political party in Slovenia. Its first president was Gregor Golobič, former Secretary General of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia and former close advisor to th ...

, but lost nearly 80% of its seats, dropping from 23 to just 5 and becoming the smallest parliamentary party. In the 2011 parliamentary election on 4 December 2011, its support collapsed even further: it won only 1.48% of the vote, not reaching the parliamentary threshold of 4%.

History

In 1990, the well-known Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New ...

was the LDS' candidate for the Presidency of Slovenia (an auxiliary body of the President of the Republic, abolished in 1992). The LDS formed coalitions ruling the governments of Slovenia from 1992 to 2004, with an interruption for a few months in 2000. The first Prime Minister of Slovenia from LDS was

Janez Drnovšek Janez Drnovšek (; 17 May 1950 – 23 February 2008) was a Slovenian liberal politician, President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1989–1990), Prime Minister of Slovenia (1992–2002, with a short break in 2000) and President of Slovenia (200 ...

, who later became the President of Slovenia in 2002 and was succeeded by

Anton Rop Anton Rop (born 27 December 1960) is a Slovenian politician. Currently, he is a vice-president of European Investment Bank. He was Prime Minister of Slovenia, from 2002 to 2004. Until 2005 he was also the president of the Liberal Democratic Part ...

, former Finance Minister. At the 2004 European election, LDS won 21.9% of the vote, which yielded 2 seats in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

out of Slovenia's allocation of 7. At the

2004 elections 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, the LDS party suffered a considerable loss of votes. The Slovenian Democratic Party became the largest party, and the LDS went into opposition. The party held 23 seats (22.8% votes) in the

until 2007, when 12 members resigned from the party. Following the defeat of 2004, the party suffered a severe internal crisis. In 2005, Anton Rop resigned as president and was succeeded by

Jelko Kacin Jelko Kacin (born 26 November 1955) is a Slovenian politician. During the Slovenian Independence War, he was the Secretary of Information of Slovenia. He founded the Slovenian Press Agency on 3 June 1991 and the war (also called the Ten-Day War ...

. Two years later, a group led by

Matej Lahovnik Matej is a given name that originates from the Slavic nations of Central and Eastern Europe. It is one of the most common male names in Slovakia and Slovenia, and is also common in Croatia. The name is originally derived from Matthias the Apostle. ...

and the former Secretary General of the party

Gregor Golobič Gregor Golobič (born January 20, 1964) is a Slovenian politician. Between 2007 and 2012 he was president of the left liberal party ''Zares'' and between November 2008 and June 2011, he served as Minister for Science and Higher Education of Slov ...

left the LDS and founded a new social liberal political party called

, while several other prominent members left for the Social Democrats, including the former Prime Minister

. Following these events, Jelko Kacin resigned as President and was succeeded by Katarina Kresal. Following Kresal's election as president, several other prominent members, including former Health Minister Dušan Keber, decided to leave the party as well. In 2008, the party won 5,3% of the votes and entered the centre-left coalition led by the Social Democrat Borut Pahor, with two ministers in the government. In the early elections of 2011, the party failed to enter the Parliament. In 2022 Slovenian Presidential Elections the party endorsed Ivo Vajgl, their former member.

Parliamentary representation

ImageSize = width:350 height:120 PlotArea = width:250 height:80 left:50 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:50 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:4 start:0 PlotData= bar:Seats color:powderblue width:30 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1990 color: oceanblue from:start till:12 text:12 bar:1992 from:start till:22 text:22 bar:1992 from:22 till:28 text:6 DP bar:1992 from:28 till:33 text:5 Greens bar:1996 from:start till:25 text:25 bar:2000 from:start till:34 text:34 bar:2004 from:start till:12 text:12 bar:2004 from:12 till:16 text:4 SD bar:2004 from:16 till:23 text:7 Zares&other bar:2008 from:start till:5 text:5

Prominent members

;Presidents * Jožef Školč (1990−1992) *

(1992−2002) *

(2002−2005) *

(2005−2007) * Katarina Kresal (2007−2011) * Iztok Podbregar (2012−2013) * Tone Anderlič (2013−Present) ;Other prominent members * Mojca Drčar Murko * Jože Pirjevec ;Other prominent former members * Igor Bavčar *

Alenka Bratušek Alenka Bratušek (; born 31 March 1970) is a Slovenian politician. She was Prime Minister of Slovenia from March 2013 until May 2014, the first woman in Slovenia to hold this position. She was president ''pro tempore'' of the Positive Slovenia p ...

Slovenskenovice.si - Vse stranke premierke Bratušek in ministra Jakiča
/ref> * Jože Dežman *

* Dimitrij Rupel * Ivo Vajgl * Slavko Ziherl *

Electoral results

Parliament

References

External links

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Liberal Democracy Of Slovenia 1994 establishments in Slovenia Liberal parties in Slovenia Organizations based in Ljubljana Political parties established in 1994 Pro-European political parties in Slovenia