Politics of Germany
Political parties
Elections
The Serbska Ludowa Strona (Wendish People's Party) (SLS) was founded on 26 March 2005 in Cottbus to represent the Sorb/Wendish ethnic and linguistic minority (around 60,000 people) in the German Länder of Saxony and Brandenburg in the Lusatia region. The party founders consider it a successor of the Lusatia People's Party founded in 1919 (renamed Wendish People's Party in 1924) which was dissolved by the Nazi regime.
The Wendish Popular Party has been criticised by many Sorbs, for example the Domowina, as it is felt that the group could be better represented by the existing German parties.
The party arose to take part in the 2007 municipal elections, the 2008 regional elections in Brandenburg and the 2009 municipal and regional elections in Saxony.
Another ethnic minorities party, the South Schleswig Voter Federation of Danes and Frisians, has gained regional and local representation in Schleswig-Holstein where it enjoys an exemption from the electoral threshold of 5% thanks to a German-Danish treaty of 1955. A similar exemption is mentioned in the Brandenburg constitution for the Sorb/Wendish minority, but not in Saxony. Accordingly, the party leaders have said that they need 7,000 votes in Brandenburg to gain a seat in the Landtag of Brandenburg.
Famous quotes containing the words people and/or party:
“There are people who believe everything is sane and sensible that is done with a solemn face.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“What is the disease which manifests itself in an inability to leave a party—any party at all—until it is all over and the lights are being put out?... I suppose that part of this mania for staying is due to a fear that, if I go, something good will happen and I’ll miss it. Somebody might do card tricks, or shoot somebody else.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)