After more than twenty years on the Slovak political scene, the People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS) has been called it a day. The decision was made by the delegates of an extraordinary party congress held on Saturday.
As disclosed by Sergej Kozlik, who has led the political side of the party since September 2013, the reason behind the dissolution of the party is its stiffness. “The party has become rigid, it's lost its momentum and ultimately fell,” said Kozlik. “The debate turned emotional at certain points, but it was largely a peaceful one,” added Kozlik, revealing that the delegates of the congress concurred that the party has fulfilled all the principal political goals with which it entered the political scene in 1991.
The Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) was set up on 22 June, 1991 in Banska Bystrica. The delegates of the first congress of the newly-emerged party elected Vladimir Mečiar chairman, with Milan Kňažko, Michal Kovač and Augustin Marian Huska taking up the posts of vice-chairs.
Headed by Mečiar for almost twenty years, the party has managed to be a government member three times - twice (between 1992-1994, and 1994-1998) as the dominant governing party and once included in Robert Fico's first government (2006-10) as a junior coalition member - albeit under a changed name - People's Party-Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (LS-HZDS). Nevertheless, after the 2010 general election, the party found itself outside parliament garnering only some 4 percent of the vote, while 5 percent is required to enter the House.
