Early 1990s , founder of SDP and Croatia's Prime Minister from January 2000 to December 2003 The SDP was established on 3 November 1990 by the
social democratic faction of the former
League of Communists of Croatia (SKH), the Croatian branch of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ). The SDP-HSLS coalition won the election with 38.7% of the vote and 71 out of 151 seats. SDP and HSLS then formed a six-way centre-left coalition government along with the
Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), the
Liberal Party (LS),
Croatian People's Party (HNS), and the
Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS). Račan, as the leader of the strongest party, became
prime minister in the
first Račan cabinet. This period was marred with constant disagreements among coalition members on various issues. The constitution was changed several times. Račan had initially offered the post of
Speaker of Parliament to Budiša, but Budiša declined hoping to win the upcoming
2000 presidential election. Following Budiša's defeat to
Stjepan Mesić in February 2000, Budiša continued to serve as member of
Croatian parliament. In July 2001, he opposed Račan government's decision to extradite
Croatian army generals which were wanted because of, later in 2013 dismissed, charges for committing war crimes during
Croatian War of Independence to the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which caused considerable turmoil within
HSLS. In June 2001, the
Istrian regionalist party
Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) withdrew from the coalition government and its chairman
Ivan Jakovčić resigned his post as
Minister of European Integration, citing criticism of the way they governed
Istria on the regional level which had been coming from other parties within the ruling coalition. The uneasy coalition broke apart in early July 2002 when Račan formally handed in his resignation following HSLS refusal to support the agreement made with
Slovenia concerning the two countries' joint control of the
Krško Nuclear Power Plant. In late July 2002, the
second Račan cabinet was formed, with members of the remaining four parties of the original coalition (following the departure of
IDS and
HSLS) plus two minor liberal parties which had splintered from HSLS, the
Party of Liberal Democrats (Libra) and the
Liberal Party (LS). This cabinet remained in power until the next
elections in November 2003. SDP then ran in the 2003 election as part of a coalition with IDS, Libra and LS, but was defeated by the conservative
HDZ. The SDP thus returned to opposition with the coalition winning 43 out of 151 seats in the parliament (34 of which held by SDP). The January 2000 election win and the defeat of the ruling HDZ was seen as a turning point as it marked the first transition of power in Croatia's young democracy and upon coming into power Račan's government was seen as the country's first staunchly pro-Western government following a decade of the "authoritarian and nationalist rule" of late President
Franjo Tuđman. In 2007, the party was dealt a blow due to the death of their long-time leader and founder
Ivica Račan, who died on 30 April 2007 due to complications from his previously treated
kidney cancer, after he stepped down from his chairman post earlier that month. In an extraordinary party convention, former party spokesman
Zoran Milanović was elected as their new leader, beating acting chairwoman and former defence minister
Željka Antunović in the party election run-off. Other prominent candidates for the post were
Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić and former foreign minister
Tonino Picula. For the
November 2007 parliamentary election, SDP ran on an economic program with
Third Way elements devised by the previously
non-partisan economist
Ljubo Jurčić, who was also picked to be the party's candidate for the post of prime minister in case of their election victory at a party meeting in July 2007. In the election of 25 November SDP finished a close second behind HDZ, with 56 out of 153 seats. It might have won the domestic election, but as SDP does not participate in
diaspora constituency, it lost in the overall tally. Five days after the election, amid speculations that SDP might assemble a governing coalition in spite of them failing to win outright majority, he was replaced in that role by
Zoran Milanović. Nevertheless, SDP failed to assemble a governing coalition, and positioned itself as the largest opposition party instead. , 2nd chairman of the SDP (2007–2016), 10th Prime Minister of Croatia (2011–2016) and 5th President of Croatia (2020–
present) In the subsequent
June 2009 local elections, the party failed to make significant gains on the
county level, but still managed to achieve some major wins in important cities, due to the adoption of a new election system where mayors and county heads were for the first time elected directly, as opposed to the previous system which employed party lists. SDP recorded mayoral victories in a number of traditionally centre-right leaning coastal cities such as
Dubrovnik,
Šibenik and
Trogir and also managed to win in
Vukovar, a city that had been almost destroyed in the
Croatian War of Independence and was regarded as HDZ stronghold ever since. They also manage to retain control of the economically most powerful parts of the country, including the capital
Zagreb, the northern Adriatic city of
Rijeka and also won in
Istria (in coalition with IDS). In the run up to the
2009–10 presidential race, SDP held a
primary election for the very first time, in which party nominees
Ljubo Jurčić and
Ivo Josipović ran. Josipović won the primary by some two-thirds of the vote. Josipović later won the 2009–10 election with 60% of the vote in the second round in front of former SDP member and populist
Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić (who was expelled that year for running in the elections) and was officially inaugurated on 18 February 2010.
Milanović government (2011–15) coalition, 8 September 2015 In 2010, SDP formed a
political alliance known as the
Kukuriku coalition with three other centre-left parties – the
Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats (HNS),
Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) and the
Croatian Party of Pensioners (HSU) – to run in the
December 2011 parliamentary election. The coalition unveiled their 21-point campaign program on 15 September 2011 in Zagreb. The coalition won the election, winning 81 out of 151 seats in the parliament, after which SDP formed a government with two of its junior coalition (
HNS and
IDS). Party president,
Zoran Milanović, took office as the new Prime Minister and leader of
his cabinet on 23 December 2011. The Milanović administration started its mandate by introducing several liberal reforms. During 2012, a Law on
medically assisted fertilization was enacted,
health education was introduced in all elementary and high schools, and Milanović announced further expansion of
rights for same-sex couples. On 1 December 2013, a
constitutional referendum was held in Croatia, organized by the citizen initiative
For the family, creating a constitutional prohibition against
same-sex marriage. SDP was one of the leading forces campaigning against the proposal. The referendum passed with 65% votes in favour. Milanović announced the
Life Partnership Act which passed on 15 July 2014. The government's mandate was marked by several crises the cabinet had to deal with, including
a six-year economic recession,
the 2013 anti-Cyrillic protests,
war veterans protests, the 2015
Croatia–Slovenia border disputes arbitration scandal and the
European migrant crisis. A new
fiscalization law and the government's pursuit of dealing with the
swiss francs crisis are regarded as some of SDP's biggest successes in power. In January 2015, the government decided to freeze exchange rates for Swiss francs for a year, after a rise in the franc that caused increasingly expensive loans for borrowers in that currency. In August 2015, Milanović announced that Swiss franc loans will be
converted into
euro-denominated ones. The administration adopted a number of reforms in taxation to cope with the difficult economic situation amid the
Great Recession. It also cut social insurance contributions and public-sector wages. The government succeeded in reducing the budget deficit to 5.3% in 2012, but GDP contracted by 2.2% and
public debt reached 69.2%. Milanović's time in office has been marked by several cuts to Croatia's
credit rating. The unemployment rate peaked in February 2014 at 22.7%. A bad economic situation weakened the originally strong public support for the Milanović government, which was demonstrated in the
2013 local elections. In the first
European Parliament elections in Croatia in 2013, SDP won 32% of the votes and five MEPs, one less than HDZ, the largest opposition party. The following year SDP's coalition won 29.9% in the
2014 European Parliament elections and four MEPs. The party supported Ivo Josipović in the
presidential elections, which were won by
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović from the HDZ. Josipović later formed his own party,
Forward Croatia-Progressive Alliance, instead of returning to the SDP. He eventually rejoined the party in 2019.
Opposition (2015–present) In the
2015 parliamentary elections, SDP and its coalition partners won the majority in 5 out of 10 electoral districts, and eventually gained 56 out of 151 seats in the Parliament, or 59 since
Istrian Democratic Assembly participated in the post-election negotiations on forming new government as
de facto member of the coalition. After more than 70 days of negotiations with the
Bridge of Independent Lists (MOST) and numerous twists and turns mainly due to MOST frequently changing terms, SDP's coalition failed to achieve agreement with MOST on forming new government, which was formed by the independent
Tihomir Orešković who was supported by the centre-right
Patriotic Coalition. On 2 April 2016,
elections were held for the party's leadership.
Zlatko Komadina, the
prefect of
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, who advocated for a "much more social democratic" SDP, ran against Milanović. Milanović was again re-elected president of SDP for the next four years. A vote of no confidence in Orešković in June 2016 resulted in an
early parliamentary election in November which the SDP contested as the largest party in the
People's Coalition. Despite being perceived as the favorite to win the election, due to a significant lead in a large number of opinion polls, the People's Coalition won only 54 seats while the
Croatian Democratic Union won 58 (61 with coalition partners) in an upset. As a result,
Zoran Milanović declared that he would not contest the upcoming leadership election in the SDP and that he would retire from politics once a successor is elected. The first round of the leadership election on 19 November 2016 failed to produce an outright winner, as none of the seven candidates gained the necessary majority of 50% + 1 of cast votes.
Davor Bernardić received the most votes (46%) and progressed to the second round, where he faced the runner-up,
Ranko Ostojić, who received 22.8% of cast votes. The second round took place on 26 November 2016 and
Davor Bernardić was elected the 3rd chairman of the SDP with 64% of cast votes. In the
2020 parliamentary elections, the SDP achieved its worst result in parliamentary elections since the 1990s, resulting to the resignation of
Davor Bernardić the day after the election.
Zlatko Komadina took over the temporary duty of party leader until the next internal party elections. Five candidates ran in the
party's leader elections, for which voting took place on 26 September and 3 October.
Peđa Grbin was chosen as the new leader, who defeated Željko Kolar in the second round. The elections were also marked by allowing only members who had paid their membership fees to vote, which meant that 12,000 out of 32,000 of all members had the right to vote. In July 2021, intra-party clashes broke out between supporters of Grbin and Bernardić, followed by the expulsion of four MPs on charges of doing damage to party or refusing to actively participate in the
May local elections. The same MPs then refused to leave the SDP parliamentary club, and for that they received the support of 14 of their colleagues who refused to vote for their expulsion. The crisis was resolved at a session of the party's presidency when a decision was made to punish 14 supporters of ousted MPs. According to the decision, seven deputies were expelled, including
Davor Bernardić, while the remaining seven were warned. In the end, the expelled MPs and those who supported them founded a new parliamentary club called the Social Democrats Club, which had 18 deputies, while the SDP club was left with the remaining 14 deputies, which put them in third place in terms of the number of deputies in the
Sabor. On 9 July 2022, they founded a new party named the
Social Democrats. ==Organization==