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Liberal Democracy of Slovenia

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Liberal Democracy of Slovenia
LeaderKatarina Kresal
Founded1994
HeadquartersLjubljana
IdeologyLiberalism
European affiliationEuropean Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
European Parliament groupAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliationLiberal International
ColoursLight blue
Website
http://www.lds.si

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia or LDS (Slovene: Liberalna demokracija Slovenije) is a liberal political party in Slovenia. It is led by Katarina Kresal and is a member of the Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. It was the party that dominated Slovenian politics between 1992 and 2004, when it lost the elections to the Slovenian Democratic Party, and subsequently suffered a political fragmentation. Today, it is the fourth largest party in Slovenia, with an electoral support of around 5,5 %.

In 1990, the well-known Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek was the LDS' candidate for the Presidency of Slovenia (an auxiliary body of the President of the Republic, abolished in 1992).

At the European Parliament election in 2004 LDS won 21.9% of the vote, which yielded 2 seats in the European Parliament out of Slovenia's allocation of 7.

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 from LDS was Janez Drnovšek, who became the President of Slovenia in 2002 and was succeeded by Anton Rop, former Minister of Finances.

At the 2004 elections, the party suffered a considerable loss of votes. The Slovenian Democratic Party became the largest party, and the Liberal Democracy went into opposition. The party held 23 seats (22.8% votes) in the National Assembly until 2007, when 12 members resigned from the party.

Following the defeat of 2004, the party suffered a severe internal crisis. In 2005, the Anton Rop resigned as president and was succeeded by Jelko Kacin. Two years later, a group led by Matej Lahovnik and former Secretary General of the Party, Gregor Golobič, left the Liberal Democracy and founded a new political party, Zares. In the same year, several prominent members left the party and joined the Social Democrats, including the former prime minister Anton Rop. 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 minister of health Dušan Keber, decided to leave the party.

Before the 2008 elections they joined up with the later victorious Social Democrats and Zares to form an unofficial coalition. The Liberal Democracy of Slovenia is now the smallest parliamentary party in the country, its representation having dropped from 23 seats in 2004 to just five in 2008.

Parliamentary representation:

Presidents

Other prominent members

Other prominent former members

See also

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