The party's origins lay in the illegal under the communist rule of
János Kádár. This gave rise to the loosely organized Network of Free Initiatives (
Szabad Kezdeményezések Hálózata) on 1 May 1988 and to the foundation of the SZDSZ as an opposition political party on 13 November 1988. Its founding leaders included
János Kis,
Márton Tardos,
Gáspár Miklós Tamás, and
Miklós Haraszti. The party initially suggested a radical agenda for changing the political, social and economic system in the country. It suffered a close defeat at the first free general elections of the
Third Republic in 1990, thus becoming the leading opposition force in the first free
National Assembly (Hungary's
parliament). After the fall of the conservative
Hungarian Democratic Forum-led government at the following
1994 parliamentary election, SZDSZ surprised many by entering into a coalition with the
Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the legal successor party to the communist
Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. Thus began a strategic alliance between the two parties that lasted for 14 years, ending only in 2008. The coalition successfully defeated Orbán's Fidesz in 1994, 2002 and 2006. The heyday of the SZDSZ may be thought to have ended when it suffered heavy losses in the
1998 parliamentary election. In
2002 parliamentary election, it gained only 5.5 percent of the vote, returning 20 deputies to the National Assembly. Until its withdrawal from the coalition in May 2008, the SZDSZ had three portfolios. It also had a delegation in the
European Parliament, receiving 7.7 percent of the Hungarian vote and two MEPs in the
2004 European Parliament election. In the
2006 parliamentary election, it gained no directly elected seats, but 6.5 percent of the list votes, thus securing 20 members in Hungary's 386-seat National Assembly. This was the first time that the party managed to increase its support compared with a previous general election. The MSZP–SZDSZ coalition had a small majority in the new National Assembly intake. On 31 March 2008, various reform-related disagreements between the MSZP and SZDSZ led the SZDSZ leader
János Kóka to announce that his party would exit the coalition by 1 May 2008. This also meant that the MSZP would have to form the first
minority government in Hungary since the change of regime in 1989. However, the legitimacy of Kóka's position as party president became questioned when it was discovered that some signatures of the delegates to the assembly electing him had been forged. Since he had won his position by a very small margin over Fodor, these votes might have changed the outcome. So a new leadership election was held in June and Fodor was returned. In the
2009 European Parliament election, SZDSZ retained none of its seats with just 2.2 percent of the total vote, less than half of the minimum five percent needed to secure representation. The party did not even receive five percent in Budapest, its traditional stronghold. Party president Fodor offered his resignation as soon as the official tally was announced at 10:00 p.m. In the
2010 parliamentary election, SZDSZ won only 0.25 percent of the vote and was shut out of the legislature altogether for the first time since the change of regime. The party was even unable to gain parliamentary seats in Budapest. The Alliance of Free Democrats officially ceased to exist in October 2013. A few months prior their official dissolution the
Hungarian Liberal Party was formed. ==Political positions==