Dissident groups formed under the faltering regime of
Todor Zhivkov in the late 1980s were the basis for the Union. Once Zhivkov fell, a loose political confederation was envisioned where constituent groups could continue to work for their own cause, while the coordinating council would include three members from each organization. The Longtime dissident philosopher
Zhelyu Zhelev, who would later become Bulgaria's president, was elected chairman, and
Petar Beron, a well-known
environmental scientist, was chosen as secretary. The SDS was officially founded on 7 December 1989 as a union of eleven political organizations, such as
Ekoglasnost,
Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party (United) and
Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Nikola Petkov". The following year, six more parties were incorporated (
Radical Democratic Party,
Green Party of Bulgaria,
Democratic Party,
New Social Democratic Party,
United Democratic Centre,
Democratic Front). The SDS lost the 1990 elections to the
Bulgarian Socialist Party but still participated in the joint cabinet of
Dimitar Iliev Popov. On 15 May 1991 39 members left the SDS because of disagreements with the draft of the new constitution and founded the new organizations
SDS-Center and
SDS-Liberals. Later the remnants of the SDS formed their own cabinet with Prime Minister
Filip Dimitrov in November 1991, though the cabinet lasted only a little over a year when the government failed a
motion of confidence in September 1992. The socialists, together with the
Movement for Rights and Freedoms, formed a coalition government headed by Prof.
Lyuben Berov. Following the resignation of Berov's cabinet in October 1994, the BSP went on to win the
1994 elections. However, following discontent over economic problems, Prime Minister
Zhan Videnov resigned at the end of 1996, clearing the way for
new elections, this time won by the SDS with a crushing 55% vote. Party leader
Ivan Kostov went on to form the new government and successfully passed several economic reforms. He was eventually rewarded in December 1999 with an invitation to begin membership talks with the
European Union. But public discontent over the social cost of the reforms, including increased unemployment, as well as allegations of corruption led to the SDS's defeat in the
June 2001 elections, which were won by the
National Movement for Simeon II. The
United Democratic Forces won 18.2% of the popular vote and 51 out of 240 seats. The SDS was chaired until the May 20, 2007 European elections by
Petar Stoyanov, former president of the country. Meanwhile, Kostov, the former Prime Minister and SDS party leader went on to form his own party -
Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria. At the
2005 parliamentary election, the United Democratic Forces won 8.4% of the popular vote and 20 out of 240 seats. It was announced at the inaugural conference of the
Movement for European Reform (MER, March 2007) that the SDS would become official partners alongside the
British Conservative Party and the
Czech Civic Democratic Party. In mid April 2007, the SDS backtracked on its decision, stating that it remains loyal to the EPP and that it will never leave the EPP section of the EPP-ED Group to join another Group. In the
May 20, 2007 European elections the SDS failed to elect even a single MEP, resulting in the resignation of Stoyanov who led the list. At the start of 2009 the SDS entered in an electoral alliance named the "
Blue Coalition" with four other center-right parties: the
DSB, the
United Agrarians, the
Bulgarian Social Democratic Party and the
Radical Democratic Party. The alliance fielded candidates for the
June 2009 European election winning a seat. When the
Lisbon Treaty came into force in December of that year, their representation doubled. Now both the SDS and the DSB had an MEP. The Blue coalition placed fifth in the
legislative election a month later with a combined 6.8% of the vote and 15 seats. In the
May 2013 elections, the SDS ran alone and lost all of its seats in the Bulgarian National Assembly, but regained four
next year as a part of the
Reformist Bloc alliance. The same pattern repeated in
2017 and
April of 2021, with zero and then two seats respectively (running together with
GERB in 2021). Two other MPs joined the SDS later on. == Coalitions ==