Social Democratic Union of Macedonia
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Template:Politics of the Republic of Macedonia Image:Sdsmacedonia.gif The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (Macedonian: Социјалдемократски Сојуз на Македонија Socijaldemokratski Sojuz na Makedonija, SDSM) is a political party in the Republic of Macedonia. It is the succesor of the League of Communists of Macedonia, the ruling party during the communism. From September 1992 to 1998 the SDSM was the main pillar of the coalition governments and, between other, has shown moderate and reconciliatory attitude towards ethnic minorities in Macedonia. Concerning its ideology, it can be said that although the SDSM is a successor of a communist party and calls itself “social-democratic”, the influential business lobby in SDSM is shaping the party in neoliberalist way. Consequently, the SDSM has fewer supporters in lower classes and more supporters in upper classes than one can expect from a social-democratic party.
The party lost the 1998 elections, but at the last legislative elections, 15 september 2002, the party became the strongest party winning 43 out of 120 seats in the Assembly of Macedonia as major party of the Together for Macedonia alliance, led by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia and the Liberal Democratic Party. Together for Macedonia governs in coalition with the Democratic Union for Integration.
Leader of this party until 2004 when elected president was Branko Crvenkovski, when he had to resign because he was elected as President of the Republic of Macedonia. Now it is led by Vlado Bučkovski, who is also the prime minister. Other prominent members of this party are: Radmila Šekerinska, Nikola Popovski, Ilinka Mitreva, Nikola Kjurkciev, and others. The SDSM is a full member of the Socialist International and a PES associate member.
On November 30, 2005 one of the most prominent members of the SDSM, Tito Petkovski, left the party to form the New Social Democratic Party. This is second split from the SDSM, the first one being the 1993 split of Petar Gošev, who has established the Democratic Party.
According to Petkovski the main problem with the party is that it is not following its social democratic ideology, by enforcing privitization of many state owned companies and by lowering spending on health-care.