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Political party in Yugoslavia
The
Independent Democratic Party
(
Serbo-Croatian
:
Samostalna demokratska stranka
,
Самостална демократска странка
;
Slovene
:
Samostojna demokratska stranka
, SDS) was a
social liberal
political party in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
, and later the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
. It was established by
Svetozar Pribi?evi?
as a breakaway faction of the
Democratic Party
in 1924. It was formed by three different groups: by far the largest group were the Serbs from the areas of the former
Austro-Hungarian Empire
, that is
Croatian
,
Bosnian
and
Vojvodina Serbs
, with the prevalence of the first. The second most influential group were
Slovene centralist liberals
. The third group was composed by
Croat
liberals, mostly from
Dalmatia
and
Zagreb
.
[1]
In the first three years of its existence, the party supported a strong central Yugoslav government, fiercely opposing the
federalism
of the
Croatian Peasant Party
, the
Croatian nationalism
and the
Croatian Party of Rights
, ethnic Serbian
hegemonism
of the
People's Radical Party
, and Slovenian and Bosnian quests for
territorial autonomy
, supported respectively by the
Slovene People's Party
and the
Yugoslav Muslim Organization
. In 1927, however, they reached an agreement with
Stjepan Radi?
's Croatian Peasant Party, forming the
Peasant-Democratic Opposition
, which demanded a decentralization of Yugoslavia. After the establishment of the royal dictatorship of
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia
in January 1929, the party was officially dissolved, but continued to function underground, while its president Svetozar Pribi?evi? went into exile. Many of its members joined the officially sponsored
Yugoslav Radical Peasants' Democracy
(renamed to Yugoslav National Party in 1933), including the great majority of its Slovenian members.
After Pribi?evi?'s death in exile in 1936, the leader of the party became
Srđan Budisavljevi?
. After the reinstatement of political parties ahead of the
1935 election
, the Independent Democratic Party was allowed to function legally again. It joined the United Opposition led by
Vladko Ma?ek
.
In the mid-1920s, before the "anti-centralist turn" of the party in 1927, the Independent Democratic Party drew support from the militant Yugoslav nationalist organization
ORJUNA
.
Electoral performances
[
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]
- 1925
: 4.8% (8 MPs)
- 1927
: 8.6% (27 MPs)
(banned; from 1929 to 1935)
See also
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]
References
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