| Democratic Party Демократска странка Demokratska stranka |
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|---|---|
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| Leader | Boris Tadić |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Headquarters | Krunska 69, Belgrade |
| Ideology | Social democracy Third Way |
| International affiliation | Socialist International |
| European affiliation | Party of European Socialists |
| European Parliament Group | PES |
| Official colours | Blue, Yellow |
| Website | |
| www.ds.rs | |
| Politics of Serbia Political parties Elections |
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The Democratic Party (Serbian: Демократска странка, Demokratska stranka, 
listen (help·info)) is the main center-left political party in Serbia. It is the largest political party in Serbia in terms of sitting Members of Parliament, and in what respects the international arena, the Democratic Party is a member of the Socialist International and Party of European Socialists.
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History
Interwar period
The Democratic Party was founded as the State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats in 1919, in Sarajevo, when Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian liberal parties merged. The elected president of the party was Ljubomir Davidović, also a president of the Assembly and a mayor of Belgrade. The party won the majority of votes in the first elections held in 1920, and until 1929 they were in and out of government (either independently or as part of a coalition). In 1924, a large portion of the party, including its Slovenian, Croatian, Croatian Serb and Bosnian sections, led by Svetozar Pribićević, established their own Independent Democratic Party. The Democratic Party thus shrunk mostly to Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, while in the former Austro-Hungarian areas of the state, the Independent Democratic Party prevailed. In 1929 King Alexander abolished the constitution and created a personal dictatorship, changing the name of the country to Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Democratic Party remained in opposition until World War II.
After Davidović's death in 1940, Milan Grol took over the presidency of the party.
World War II
Following Yugoslavian occupation by Germany in 1941, most of the party leadership fled to United Kingdom. Some members who stayed fought either along Chetniks or Partisans.
Postwar
After the war, the Democratic Party called for a boycott of communist-organized elections in 1945. The Communist Party led by Josip Broz Tito banned the Democratic Party. Its members were persecuted, some killed, and some sentenced to long prison terms.
1990s
The Democratic Party was re-established in 1990 by former members from the 1940s and a younger generation of new members. The new elected party president was Dragoljub Mićunović.
Members of the DS participated in the first anti-government protests in 1990. In elections that year, the party was on ballot in 176 of 250 electoral districts, and won 7 assembly seats. Only several days prior to the elections, left the party and formed the Serbian Liberal Party. In 1992, a much larger faction left the party and established the Democratic Party of Serbia.
Zoran Đinđić was the second president of the party, elected at the party conference in January 1994. On 21 February 1997 he was elected Mayor of Belgrade following more than three months of peaceful protest marches by hundreds of thousands of citizens protesting against blatant vote rigging by Slobodan Milošević and his cronies.
Recent events
The fall of Slobodan Milošević regime in October 2000 occurred after street protests by hundreds of thousands of citizens. Democratic Party was the biggest party of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia block that won 64.7% of the votes in 2000 elections held in December 2000, getting 176 of 250 seats in the Parliamentary Assembly. In 2001 Zoran Đinđić was appointed the Prime Minister of Serbia at the head of the first post-Milosevic, post-Communist Government of Serbia sworn in on 21 January 2001.
In 2003, Zoran Đinđić, the Prime Minister of Serbia, was assassinated. Boris Tadić was elected new president of Democratic Party in 2004. He was nominated for the Serbian presidential elections in the same year, and won it while Democratic party was still in opposition in parliament.
Democratic Party received 915,854 popular votes or 22.71%, and thus won 64 out of 250 seats in parliament in the 2007 elections. Three of its seats went to the Sanjak Democratic Party, which formed a club with DS under Dušan Petrović as president and Milan Marković as vice-president. At the first session of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia the party mostly voted to refuse Martti Ahtisaari's proposal for Kosovo's solution.
Boris Tadić was re-elected at the Serbian presidential election, 2008.
The party has also taken three seats in the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija, but has refused to sit in the Assembly until the situation in Kosovo is stabilized.[1]
In the most recent 2008 elections the pro-European coalition led by the DS won 38.5% of the popular vote, translating into 102 seats in the Serbian National Assembly, making it the largest political party block in the Serbian Parliament.
Positions held
Major positions held by Democratic Party members:
| President | Years |
|---|---|
| Boris Tadić | 2004 - |
| Prime Minister | Years |
| Zoran Đinđić | 2001 - 2003 |
| Zoran Živković | 2003 - 2004 |
| Mirko Cvetković | 2008 - |
| Mayor of Belgrade | Years |
| Zoran Đinđić | 1997 |
| Radmila Hrustanović | 2001 - 2004 |
| Nenad Bogdanović | 2004 - 2007 |
| Dragan Đilas | 2008 - |
| Chairman of the Executive Council of Vojvodina | Years |
| Bojan Pajtić | 2004 - |
Current Mayors of Novi Sad, Niš, Subotica, Užice, Pančevo, Sombor, Zrenjanin, Šabac, Smederevo and Valjevo are also members of the Democratic Party.
External links
References
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