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Social Democrats (Political party, Slovenia)

Socialni demokrati - SD

Last modified: 2012-02-25 by ivan sache
Keywords: social democrats | socialni demokrati | letters: sd (white) | leaf (green) | star (yellow) | heart (red) | united list of social democrats |
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[Flag of SD]         [Flag of SD]

Flag of SD, two variants - Images by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010 (left) and Tomislav Todorović, 3 April 2011


See also:


Presentation of SD

The Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati, SD) is a center-left political party in (and, since 2008, the current ruling party of) Slovenia, a member of the PES and the Socialist International. In the 2008 parliamentary elections it won 320,248 votes for 30.45% of the total, and 29 seats.

The party was founded on 29 May 1993 as the United List of Social Democrats (Združena lista socialnih demokratov, ZLSD), by a formal merger of several left parties that had already run in coalition in the 1992 elections: the Social-Democratic Renewal of Slovenia (Socialdemokratična Prenova Slovenije, SPS), the Worker's Party (Delavska stranka), the Social-Democratic Union (Socialdemokratska unija, SDU) and factions of the Socialist Party of Slovenia (SSS) and of DeSUS. The resulting party was a member of governing coalitions between 1992-94 and between 2000-04. It renamed itself to "Social Democrats" on 02 Apr 2005.
As the Social-Democratic Renewal of Slovenia - the senior partner in the 1993 merger - was the rebadged post-1990 version of the reform wing of the League of Communists of Slovenia, the Social Democrats are the legal successors of the ZKS.

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010


Logo of SD

[Logo of SD]

Logo of SD - Image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

The SD logo adopted at the name change in 2005 incorporated the old ZLSD logo: a blue square with a green linden leaf overlapping a yellow star in turn overlapping a red heart, all fimbriated white. The new logo added to this a red box with the white capital letters "SD" alongside. This joint logo, relevant to several flags) is still official, according to the party statutes:

Article 3.
The emblem of the party is a red heart, yellow star and green linden leaf on a blue field and the party acronym in white on a red field. The acronym is "SD".

In practice this sees only sporadic use; the party formally simplified its logotype to only the "SD" sigla on 22 March 2009. This has more recently again been modified slightly; the letters "SD" were changed to a slimmer font, however the old version remains in concurrent use, including on almost all the flags I've seen (I guess a new batch hasn't been ordered since the update) - but see the party's table flags.

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010


Flag of SD

The flag of SD is red with the white letters "SD" in the center (photo). I don't know when this design came into use, but before it the party may have used a blue flag with the leaf/star/heart logo

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

A less oblong variant with larger party name initials was seen at a party rally in Ljubljana, on 17 September 2008 (photo), where its small copies were carried by people who attended the rally. It was seen again in Ljubljana on 3 June 2009 (photo), when a party booth was set in the street, from which the small copies of the flag were distributed to the passers-by.

Tomislav Todorović, 3 April 2011


Vertical flag of SD

[Vertical flag of SD]         [Vertical flag of SD]         [Vertical flag of SD]

Vertical flags of SD, three variants - Images by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010 (left, middle) and Tomislav Todorović, 3 April 2011

The vertical versions of the SD flag are similar to or identical to the party's table flags; they both have the SD larger, rotated and near the bottom, although it may be either very large and centered or smaller and off-center.

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

A flag similar in form to the vertical flags, but its hoisting being a combination of those of German Knatterflaggen and Auslegerflaggen, only with the outrigger going through the flag sleeve, was seen at a party rally in Ljubljana, on 17 September 2008 (photo). In the same month, the same flag was used at the party rallies in Murska Sobota (photo) and Koper (photo) . It was also used at the rally in Maribor one month earlier (photo).
On this flag, the letters were smaller and centered near the bottom; the proportions were 2:1. The photos show that their size was sometimes too big for the outriggers of flagstaffs, which did not fill the complete sleeve length.

Tomislav Todorović, 3 April 2011


Table flags of SD

[Table flag of SD]         [Table flag of SD]

Table flags of SD - Images by Tomislav Todorović, 7 November 2010 (left) and Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010 (right)

The party uses a number of table flag designs, some of which are derived from that of its emblem. The simplest of these has proportions 1:2, with the white letters "SD" on a red field in the hoist and a red heart, a yellow star and a green linden leaf on the blue field in the fly. The charges in the fly are each bordered in white - word "fimbriated" could not be used here, because the border is so wide that the whole stem of the leaf is actually white. The heart is partly covered by the star, which in turn is partly covered by the leaf. This flag can be seen at the photo gallery from a gathering organized by the local party organization in Velenje on 8 September 2008. At the same gallery, the most common form of the party emblem can be seen at the page header, although other arrangements of the same elements also exist.

The new slimmer sigla of SD is so far in used only on table flags.

Tomislav Todorović & Eugene Ipavec, 7 November 2010


SD interest groups

Young Forum

[Flag of Young Forum]         [Vertical flag of Young Forum]

Flag of Young Forum, horizontal and vertical versions - Images by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

The flag of Young Forum (Mladi forum) is red with white cursive uppercase text "MLADI FORUM" on two lines, below it "SOCIALNIH DEMOKRATOV" ("[of the] Social Democrats"), uppercase on one line, below which is a white url in a lowercase cursive.
The vertical (and table) flag is identical but adds a white-outlined square around the first two elements.

[Old flag of Young Forum]

Old flag of Young Forum - Image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

An older version of the flag of Young Forum was red with a logo, a globe under some arches.

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010


Women's Forum

[Flag of Women's Forum]

Flag of Women's Forum - Image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

The table flag of Women's Forum (Ženski forum) is red with white text "ženski forum" in lowercase italic Corbell on two lines, the "o" modified into a ♀ symbol. Below it "SOCIALNIH DEMOKRATOV" ("[of the] Social Democrats"), uppercase on one line.

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010


Workers' League

[Flag of Workers' League]

Flag of the Workers' League - Image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010

The flag of the Workers' League (Delavska zveza) is a square red flag with white outline carnation and the text "DELAVSKA ZVEZA SOCIALNIH DEMOKRATOV" in white on two lines below.

Eugene Ipavec, 4 September 2010


United List of Social Democrats

[Flag of ZLSD]

Flag of ZLSD - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 7 November 2010

The Statutes of United List of Social Democrats (ZLSD), which was used until 5th Congress, was describing both the flag and the emblem: the emblem was a blue square charged with the red heart, yellow star and green linden leaf - the same design which makes the part of the present-day emblem - and the flag had proportions 1:2, with the same three charges on blue field. The flag design has originally evolved from that of the League of Communists of Slovenia - Party of Democratic Renewal. The Statute had also prescribed that the flag would be charged with the party name inscribed in white as well, but this seems to have been usually omitted - at least, none of the photos available on the Internet at that time was showing the inscription. Although the Statute had said nothing about that, the flags were always hoisted vertically, with the charges in the fly.
After the party name was changed, the old flags were replaced with the new ones almost completely, but some of the copies have remained in use until at least 2008, when the local party organization in Šmartno ob Paki used them at a gathering on 9 September 2008 (photos). Although currently there is no such information, it is quite possible that these or other copies of this flag are still in use.

Tomislav Todorović, 7 November 2010