The Social Democratic Party (, abbr. SDS) is a

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 ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

. The party was founded and is headed by

Boris Tadić Boris Tadić, (born 15 January 1958) is a Serbian politician who served as the president of Serbia from 2004 to 2012. Born in Sarajevo, he graduated from the University of Belgrade with a degree in psychology. He later worked as a journalist ...

, who was previously president of the Democratic Party and the former

President of Serbia The president of Serbia (), officially styled as President of the Republic (), is the head of state of Serbia. The current officeholder is Aleksandar Vučić, who was elected in 2017 and has held the role since 31 May 2017. According to the C ...

. Between June and October 2014, the name of the party was the New Democratic Party (, NDS). In May 2019, the party formed a union with Democratic Party and Together for Serbia. It supports

accession of Serbia to the European Union Serbia applied to join the European Union (EU) in 2009 and has been a candidate for membership since 2012 (along with nine other states), while negotiations started in 2014 and are still ongoing. Serbia is the largest country in Southeast Eu ...

and it is a member of the

Progressive Alliance The Progressive Alliance (PA) is a political international of progressive and social democratic political parties and organisations founded on 22 May 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. The alliance was formed as an alternative to the existing Socia ...

History

Tadić revealed in February 2014 his intention to secede from the Democratic Party and to form a new party to take part in the 2014 parliamentary election. But, after realising that they don't have enough time to register a new party before the election, Tadić and his supporters made a deal with the

Greens of Serbia The Greens of Serbia (, abbr. Zeleni) is a green political party in Serbia. Established on 14 September 2007, Zeleni advocates environmental and ecological wisdom, social justice and solidarity, direct democracy, green economics, sustainabi ...

. As part of this deal, Tadić and his supporters joined the Greens of Serbia, and then on 10 February 2014 the name of the party was changed to the "New Democratic Party – Greens". Although Ivan Karić was still officially president of this party, Tadić became its de facto leader. Party then participated in the 2014 parliamentary election under that name in coalition with Together for Serbia, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and some other minor parties. This coalition won 5.7% of the electoral vote and 18 seats in the

National Assembly of Serbia The National Assembly ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ), fully the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia (), is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are ...

. Of these, 11 seats were allocated to the "New Democratic Party – Greens", but only one to the original Greens (Ivan Karić) and 10 to the group around Boris Tadić. After the 2014 parliamentary election, a divergence emerged in the "New Democratic Party – Greens" between the original Greens and group of members that joined the party with Tadić. On 14 June, Tadić and his supporters decided to secede from the Greens and form "New Democratic Party" as a separate party, while the name of the "New Democratic Party—Greens" was changed back to the "Greens of Serbia". In the National Assembly, 10 deputies of the New Democratic Party are part of the

parliamentary group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political party, political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller politic ...

of 12 deputies together with Ivan Karić of ''the Greens'' and Blagoje Bradić of ''Together for Serbia'', and they are in the opposition to the current

Government of Serbia The government of Serbia ( sr-cyrl, Влада Србије, Vlada Srbije), formally the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr-cyrl, Влада Републике Србије, Vlada Republike Srbije), commonly abbreviated to Serbian Governme ...

. First internal party elections were held on 4 October 2014. Boris Tadić was elected president of the party. On the same day, the official name of the party was changed to the "Social Democratic Party". As of January 2017, the Social Democratic Party holds four seats in the

. It exists in a parliamentary alliance with the People's Movement of Serbia, which holds one seat. On 10 January 2022, it was announced that the ''Democrats of Serbia,'' a break-away faction from the Democratic Party, will merge with SDS. In the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

, SDS was associated with the Socialist Group. In the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election, SDS contested as part of the Good Morning Serbia alliance.

List of presidents

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

Presidential elections

Provincial elections

Belgrade City Assembly elections

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Social Democratic Party (Serbia) 2014 establishments in Serbia Political parties established in 2014 Pro-European political parties in Serbia Progressive Alliance Social democratic parties in Serbia Democratic Party (Serbia) breakaway groups Centre-left parties in Europe