History
The SSk was founded in 1962 with the merger of several Slovene anti-communist political organizations that had functioned since 1945 in the Italian part of the Julian March (Venezia Giulia), that is in the provinces Gorizia and Trieste (until 1954 Zone A of the Free Territory of Trieste). These organizations included the Slovene Christian Social Union (Slovenska krščansko socialna zveza, SKSZ), led by Engelbert Besednjak and Avgust Sfiligoj; the liberal Slovene Democratic Union (Slovenska demokratska zveza, SDZ), led by Josip Agneletto and Andrej Uršič; and the social-democratic Group of Independent Slovenes (Skupina neodvisnih Slovencev, SNS), led by Josip Ferfolja, Frane Tončič and Dušan Rybář. All these groups shared an anti-fascist ideology, they were opposed to Italian nationalism and centralism, as well as to the Communist regime of the nearby Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Coming from different ideological background, but sharing similar programs, these groups soon established a close collaboration, creating many joint lists in municipal and provincial elections. Between 1947 and 1954, a unitary action was hindered by the fact that the Slovene minority was split into two separate political realities, one in the Republic of Italy and the other in the Free Territory of Trieste.
The SSk has taken part in nearly all general, regional and municipal elections in Friuli-Venezia Giulia since the 1963 general election. Beginning from the late 1960s, it frequently formed alliances with Christian Democracy. Since its foundation, the SSk has maintained close relations with the South Tyrolean People's Party and the Valdotanian Union. In the 1992 general election the SSk formed a joint list with the Valdotanian Union, the Union for South Tyrol, the Sardinian Action Party, and some smaller regional parties; this effort produced a seat in the Chamber of Deputies and one in the Senate of the Republic, but none of them was for the SSk.
Since the beginning of the so-called Italian Second Republic, the SSk has been in alliance with centre-left coalitions, such as the The Olive Tree, and had been an associate party of the Italian People's Party, Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, and finally the Democratic Party.
Read more about this topic: Slovene Union
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