Leader Irina Veshtard | Political position Centre-left | |
Russian name Белорусская социал-демократическая партия (Громада́) Founded 25 June 2005 (2005-06-25) Split from Belarusian Social Democratic Party (People's Assembly) Ideology Social democracy
Liberal socialism
Pro-Europeanism | ||
The Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly) (Belarusian: Беларуская сацыял-дэмакратычная партыя (Грамада́), Russian: Белорусская социал-демократическая партия (Громада́), Belarusskaya Social-Demokraticheskaya Partiya (Hromada)) is a social democratic political party in Belarus, that opposes the government of president Alexander Lukashenko.
The party was founded in 2005 after the split within the BSDP (People's Assembly). It considers itself the successor of the historical Belarusian Socialist Assembly founded in 1902. Alaksandar Kazulin, a former rector of Belarusian State University, became the first party leader of the new registered party. The BSDP (People's Assembly) remained without registration and office.
At the legislative elections, 13–17 October 2004, the party didn't secure any seat. These elections fell according to the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission [1] significantly short of OSCE commitments. Its candidate at the presidential election of 2006, Alaksandar Kazulin, won 2.3% of the vote.
In 2011, Irina Veshtard was elected as the new chairman of the party.
Ideology and goals of the party
Belarusian Social Democratic Party belongs to the community of parties united in the Socialist International. BSDP focused on western social-democratic ideology and is supported by various European social democratic parties. The main task of the country's foreign party proclaims not only the entry of Belarus to the European Union and NATO, but also promote the accession of Russia, Ukraine and Moldova.