Liberal Democratic Party Либерално демократска странка | |
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Former name | Liberal Party |
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Founded | 14 December 1989 |
Registered | 15 August 1990 |
Dissolved | 19 January 2010 |
Succeeded by | Serbian Monarchists |
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Political position | Syncretic |
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The Liberal Democratic Party (Serbian: Либерално демократска странка, romanized: Liberalno demokratska stranka, abbr. LDS), known as the Liberal Party (Serbian: Либерална странка, romanized: Liberalna stranka, abbr. LS) until 1997, was a political party in Serbia. Founded in 1989, its first president was Aleksandar Stefanović . Stefanović left LS to join Vojislav Šešelj's Serbian Chetnik Movement in June 1990. He was then succeeded as president by Predrag Vuletić.
LS was opposed to Slobodan Milošević and his Socialist Party of Serbia and organised anti-government protests with other opposition parties in the 1990s. LS achieved its best result in parliamentary elections in 1990, and in all subsequent elections up to 1997, it received less than 1,000 votes. Vuletić also ran three times in presidential elections on behalf of the party, achieving his best result in the December 1997 election. LDS was a member of the Democratic Movement of Serbia and Alliance for Change opposition coalitions, the latter being the predecessor coalition of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia that toppled Milošević in 2000. In the 2000s, LDS contested four local elections, but did not gain any representation. Vuletić also offered Čedomir Jovanović, the founder of the Liberal Democratic Faction inside the Democratic Party, to take over the party in 2004, but Jovanović never responded and formed his Liberal Democratic Party instead. LDS was succeeded by the Serbian Monarchists association in January 2010. Vuletić joined New Serbia in 2011.
A liberal party, LS was mostly ideologically focused on economic issues, favouring a free-market economy, privatisation, and agricultural development. It was also against nationalism, dissolution of Yugoslavia, and autonomism regarding Kosovo. The party was strongly anti-communist, favouring civic democracy instead, and supported the restoration of the monarchy and the lustration of former members of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. It supported the accession of Serbia to the European Union and NATO and had ambitions to join the Liberal International.