Liberal Democracy of Slovenia

Liberal Democracy of Slovenia or LDS (Slovenian: Liberalna demokracija Slovenije) is a liberal political party in Slovenia. It is led by Katarina Kresal and is a member of the Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform (ELDR) Party. In 1990, the well-known Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek was the LDS' candidate for the Presidency of Slovenia (an auxiliary body of the President of the Republic, abolished in 1992). At the European Parliament election in 2004 LDS won 21.9% of the vote, which yielded 2 seats in the European Parliament out of Slovenia's allocation of 7. The LDS formed coalitions ruling the governments of Slovenia from 1992 to 2004, with an interruption for a few months in 2000. The first prime minister from LDS was Janez Drnovšek, who became the President of Slovenia in 2002 and was succeeded by Anton Rop, former Minister of Finances. At the 2004 elections, the party suffered a considerable loss of votes. The Slovenian Democratic Party became the largest party, and the Liberal Democracy went into opposition. The party held 23 seats (22.8% votes) in the National Assembly until 2007, when 12 members resigned from the party. It is now the third-largest parliamentary party. In 2007, a group led by Matej Lahovnik and former Secretary General of the Party, Gregor Golobič, left the Liberal Democracy and founded a new political party, Zares. Parliamentary representation: <timeline> ImageSize = width:350 height:120 PlotArea = width:250 height:80 left:50 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:40 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:4 start:0 PlotData=

 bar:Seats color:powderblue width:30   mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
 bar:1990 color: oceanblue from:start till:12 text:12
 bar:1992 from:start till:22 text:22 
 bar:1992 from:22 till:28 text:6 DP
 bar:1992 from:28 till:33 text:5 Greens
 bar:1996 from:start till:25 text:25
 bar:2000 from:start till:34 text:34
 bar:2004 from:start till:12 text:12
 bar:2004 from:12 till:16 text:4 SD
 bar:2004 from:16 till:23 text:7 Zares&other
 </timeline>

Prominent members

• Janez Drnovšek (left the party)
• Slavoj Žižek (left the party)
• Anton Rop (left the party)
• Jelko Kacin
• Mojca Drčar Murko
• Jože Pirjevec

See also

• Liberalism
• Contributions to liberal theory
• Liberalism worldwide
• List of liberal parties
• Liberal democracy
• Liberalism in Slovenia

External links

• Liberal Democracy of Slovenia official site

•  • e Political parties in Slovenia
Parliamentary parties	Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia - Liberal Democracy of Slovenia - New Slovenia – Christian People's Party - Slovenian Democratic Party - Slovenian National Party - Slovenian People's Party - Social Democrats - Zares
Extra-parliamentary parties	Active Slovenia - Greens of Slovenia - Slovenia is Ours - Youth Party of Slovenia
- List of political parties - Politics of Slovenia