Social Democratic Union (Serbia)

The Social Democratic Union (Serbian: Социјалдемократска унија, romanized: Socijaldemokratska unija; abbr. СДУ, SDU) was a minor social democratic and leftist political party in Serbia.^[1] In 2020 Party merged into Party of the Radical Left.^[2]

Social Democratic Union Социјалдемократска унија Socijaldemokratska unija
Leader	Ivan Zlatić (last)
Founder	Žarko Korać
Founded	13 May 1996; 28 years ago (1996-05-13) (re-founded in 2003)
Dissolved	7 September 2020
Split from	Civic Alliance of Serbia
Succeeded by	Party of the Radical Left
Headquarters	Belgrade, Serbia
Ideology	Social democracy Democratic socialism Eco-socialism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre-left to left-wing
Website
www.sdu.org.rs
Politics of Serbia Political parties Elections

History

The Social Democratic Union was registered on 13 May 1996. It was founded by former members of the Civic Alliance of Serbia, led by Žarko Korać, who opposed forming coalition with the right-wing Serbian Renewal Movement for the 1996 federal election.^[3] On 21 April 2002 the SDU merged with Social Democracy (SD) and founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP).^[4][1]

A year later, disenchanted members of the SDP, led by Žarko Korać, left and re-founded the SDU on 29 March 2003. Spokesman of the SDP Ljiljana Nestorović stated that this was due to almost all local councils supporting co-president Slobodan Orlić, former leader of the SD, in the upcoming party congress which was to be held in less than 20 days.^[5][1] In the 2014 election the SDU was again part of the coalition around Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but the coalition failed to enter the parliament. It gained 3.36% of the votes, and did not reach the threshold of 5%. At the 8th Congress in June 2014, Korać stepped down and Miloš Adamović was elected president.^[6]

At the 9th Congress on 15 October 2016, Ivan Zlatić was elected president.^[7] In the 2018 Belgrade local election the SDU went as part of the Do not let Belgrade d(r)own electoral list which won 3.44% and failed to pass the electoral threshold.^[8][9] On 12th Congress SDU merged into Party of the Radical Left.

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections

Year	Popular vote	% of popular vote	# of seats	Seat change	Coalitions	Status
1997	Election boycott		0 / 250		–	no seats
2000	2,402,387	64.09%	4 / 250	4	DOS alliance	government
2003	481,249	12.58%	1 / 250	3	With DS–GSS–DC–LZS	opposition
2007	214,262	5.31%	1 / 250		With LDP−GSS–LSV–DHSS	opposition
2008	216,902	5.24%	1 / 250		With LDP−DHSS	opposition
2012	255,546	6.53%	1 / 250		U-Turn alliance	opposition
2014	120,879	3.36%	0 / 250	1	With LDP−BDZS	no seats
2016	35,710	0.94%	0 / 250		With LS−PZP	no seats
2020	Election boycott		0 / 250		–	no seats

See also

• Serbian Social Democratic Party (Kingdom of Serbia)