History
It was formed in 1997 as a liberal/social-democrat party said to be based on the doctrine of Svetozar Pribićević's Independent Democratic Party from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The party is led by Vojislav Stanimirović and aims to facilitate the return of Serb refugees who in 1995, in the face of Operation Storm, fled Croatia. Operation Storm was a military operation in which the Croatian military and police took the main part of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, thus establishing Croatian government control up to and including the Republic of Croatia's internationally recognized boundaries.
In the Croatian parliamentary election, 2003, it beat its main rival, the Serb People's Party (SNS), taking all three seats reserved for Serb representatives in the Croatian parliament.
After the elections, the Independent Democratic Serb Party made an agreement with the winning HDZ party (Croatian Democratic Union) led by Ivo Sanader in which they agreed on fulfilling several SDSS demands such as refugee return, strengthening of national equality, judicial reform and cooperation with neighbouring countries.
In the Croatian parliamentary election, 2007, they retained their three seats in the Parliament. In the Cabinet of Ivo Sanader II, their member Slobodan Uzelac received the position of vice-president of government.
In the Croatian parliamentary election, 2011, they again won their three seats in the Parliament on the Serbian minority electoral list. They do not participate in the Cabinet of Zoran Milanović.
Read more about this topic: Independent Democratic Serb Party
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