The Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (, ''Balgarska Sotsialdemokraticheska Partiya'', BSDP) is a
social-democratic political party in
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
.
History
The party was launched on 26 November 1989 under the name Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (United), seeing itself as the historical successor to the
Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party of 1894. In January 1990 it adopted the name Bulgarian Social Democratic Party and in February
Petar Dertliev was elected chairman. Subsequently, the party joined the
Union of Democratic Forces (SDS). After a rift in the relations the BSDP left the Union and founded the "SDS-Centre" along with the movement
Ekoglasnost. The coalition received 3.2% of the vote in the
legislative elections in 1991 and failed to enter the
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 repr ...
. Until 1994 BSDP participated in the coalition "Democratic Alternative for the Republic", which also failed to overcome the 4% threshold in the elections in the
1994 election. Since 1995 a process of returning to the SDS began and so the party contested the next elections in
1994
The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations.
In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
within the
United Democratic Forces.
Since autumn 1997 a part of the leadership seek a rapprochement with other social-democratic parties in Bulgaria. In March 1998 the
Movement for Social Humanism separated from the party. An extraordinary party congress at the end of 1998 caused another split. The left-wing, led by Dertlijev, pursued an alliance with the
centre-left
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commo ...
Coalition for Bulgaria and in 2002 it changed its name to
Party of Bulgarian Social Democrats, while the right-wing continued to hold ties with the
United Democratic Forces.
Thus, the party was later part of the
Blue Coalition, an alliance led by the SDS, in the
2009 legislative election. More recently, in the
2021 legislative election the BSDP was part of the alliance Patriotic Coalition formed around
Volya and the
National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria.
List of chairmen
*
Atanas Moskov — 1989–1990
*
Petar Dertliev — 1990–1998
*
Peter Agov — 1998–2001
*
Georgi Anastasov — 2001–unknown
*
Aleksandra Hristova – 2016–today
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Social democratic parties in Bulgaria
1989 establishments in Bulgaria
Political parties established in 1989