The Social Democratic Party (, SDP; formerly Social Democratic Union, , SDS) was a

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, ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

formed by a splinter group from the Latvian Social Democratic Labour Party (LSDSP) after the leader of the LSDSP faction in the

Saeima The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the p ...

, Egils Baldzēns, lost to Juris Bojārs in the elections for party chairman on 27 October 2001. The major factor in the schism was the increasing intimacy between the LSDSP and the

For Human Rights in United Latvia The Latvian Russian Union (LRU, , ) (LKS) is a political party in Latvia supported mainly by ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking minorities. The co-chairpersons of the Latvian Russian Union were Miroslavs Mitrofanovs and Tatjana Ždanoka ...

Bloc, considered to be excessively pro-Russian by the more nationalist members in Baldzēns' breakaway wing of the party. The newly formed SDS held its founding congress in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

on 24 March 2002. In the 2002 election, the party won 1.5% of the popular vote and no seats. The last leader of the party was Egils Rutkovskis. In January 2009, the party joined the Harmony Centre coalition. http://www.saskanascentrs.lv/index.php?text&id=39&level=1&cid=482&do=news http://www.saskanascentrs.lv/index.php?text&id=39&level=1&cid=482&do=news It merged into the

Harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

party in 2010.

Election results

Legislative elections

European Parliament elections

References

External links

Official web site
Defunct political parties in Latvia Social democratic parties in Latvia {{Latvia-party-stub