Social Democrat Party (Sainte-Chloé)

Parti Social-Démocrate
Abbreviation	PSD
Leader of Opposition	Jean-Luc Vallette
Party Chair	Françoise Dudamel
Party President	Charles Bourgent
Founder	Claude Bourgent Martin Célestin
Founded	3 May 1961
Merger of	Democratic Party and Socialist Party
Newspaper	Liberté (Democrat) L'égalité pour Tous (Socialist)
Membership (2020)	356,510
Ideology	Social liberalism Secularism Democratic: Economic liberalism Neoliberalism Socialist: Social Democracy Democratic socialism
Political position	Centre-left (From Centre to Left)
Colours	Red
Slogan	"Libération de la Servitude" (Freedom from Slavery)
Chamber of Commons	66 / 179
Deuxième Chambre	12 / 65
Provincial Governments	249 / 643
Political parties

The Social Democratic Party (Gaullican: Parti Social-Démocrate), often abbreviated as the PSD, is a centre-left political party in Sainte-Chloé. It is one of Sainte-Chloé's two major parties alongside with its main rival, the Catholic Labour Party. It is and has historically been the opposition party in Sainte-Chloé's two-party system.

Founded in 1961 as a merger between the Democratic Party and Socialist Party to act as a united front against the Catholic Labour Party, the Social Democratic Party marked itself from early on as an oppositional party in nature, and has remained from then the only party able to challenge the Catholic Democratic Party in Chloéois politics. The party was able to first come into power in 1965 after the sugar magnates forced the President to call for snap elections; however, the Party failed to solve the economic problems of the Sugar Crash, and were voted out of government in 1969. Regaining control of the government in 1977, they also suffered under the economic crisis of 1980 and were again voted out. They would not regain the government until 1997, which they would hold until 2008, when the great recession led to snap elections that would oust the government. This was the longest contigious period of government in the party's history, and had them winning three straight regular elections. In 2020, Henri Montas would lead the party to a 246 day government, before economic upheaval and civil unrest forced snap elections of 2021, again pushing the Social Democrats out of power. Currently, the PSD is the only opposition party in the Chloéois Parliament, holding a total of 66 seats in the Chamber of Commons and 8 out of 28 elected seats in the Senate.

The party's primary identity is that of opposition to the Catholic Labour Party, although it also has ideological influences as well. The party is united in promoting socially liberal policies, such as the legalization of abortion and recognition of same-sex marriage, and is also committed to fully secularizing the country. In addition, the party is not as pro-Gaullican as the PCT and rather tends to be anti-colonialist in order to distance the country from the Gaullican parts of its heritage. In addition, the party is generally globalist, supporting increased cooperation with the other countries of the Asterias or the AIS. However, the party still retains economic divisions based around the original two parties, and is divided between the interests of the Democratic wing of the Party, which favours economic liberalism, privatisation of the economy, deregulation and the free market, and the Socialist wing of the party, which seeks to promote social democracy and eventually see the country's transition to democratic socialism. This historically has resulted in inner party conflict and leadership crises. Historically, the two factions have compromised, with Presidential candidates taken from the Democratic wing and Premiers from the Socialist wing. The party mostly draws its support from the wealthy elite, who support Democratic candidates, while some secular trade unions or socially liberal groups support socialist candidates.

Historically, the party has been greatly overshadowed by the Catholic Labour Party, and has only controlled a government for 19 years of the Republic's history, in comparison to 47 years of the Catholic Labour Party. 3 out of the country's 9 Presidents were from the PSD, but none ever served more than one term, whereas the Catholic Labour Party has had three Presidents serve two terms. This has led some to comment that it is a "failed party", especially after the short period of Montas's government destroyed the momentum which the party had been building for years. In addition, the PSD historically has recieved the blame for being responsible for mismanaging the country's financial crises throughout the history of the Republic, which is partially attributed to its divided economic nature. Its divided economic nature has also led to mixed reactions on an international scale, with some socialist or liberal groups refusing to align with them on account of what political philosopher Charles Devoix called an "inherent contradiction in the very heart of the party".

Electoral Results

Presidential Elections

Election	Party candidate	Electoral Votes	Result
1966	Martin Célestin	30 / 59	Elected Y
1972		27 / 59	Lost N
1978	Henri Bordin	24 / 59	Lost N
1984	Gaston Sarsberry	21 / 59	Lost N
1990		18 / 59	Lost N
1996	Claude Benegar	22 / 59	Lost N
2002	René Gagné	36 / 59	Elected Y
2008		25 / 59	Lost N
2014	Genevieve Naston	26 / 59	Lost N
2020	Maria Suavern	24 / 59	Lost N

Chamber of Commons

Election	Chamber of Commons					Rank	Government	Commons Leader
	Votes	%	±pp	Seats won	+/−
1962	XXXX	XX.XX%	New	20 / 95	20	#2	Opposition	Claude Bourgent
1965	XXXX	XX.XX%	XX.XX%	61 / 121	41	#1	Majority government	Claude Bourgent
1969	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	52 / 121	9	#2	Opposition	Claude Bourgent
1973	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	50 / 121	2	#2	Opposition	Michel Liberté
1977	XXXX	XX.XX%	XX.XX%	61 / 121	11	#1	Majority government	Alexandre du Ponte
1981	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	42 / 121	19	#2	Opposition	Antoine Remont
1985	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	43 / 131	1	#2	Opposition	Martin Lofert
1989	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	40 / 131	3	#2	Opposition	Louis Lancel
1993	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	42 / 131	2	#2	Opposition	Pierre Citadelle
1997	XXXX	XX.XX%	XX.XX%	75 / 149	33	#1	Majority government	Jean-Luc Morin
2001	XXXX	XX.XX%	XX.XX%	81 / 149	8	#1	Majority government	Jean-Luc Morin
2005	XXXX	XX.XX%	XX.XX%	82 / 161	1	#1	Majority government	Galdys Dubous
2008	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	66 / 161	16	#2	Opposition	Jean-Luc Morin
2012	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	62 / 161	4	#2	Opposition	Charlotte Bernarde
2016	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	80 / 179	18	#2	Opposition	Henri Montas
2020	XXXX	XX.XX%	XX.XX%	90 / 179	10	#1	Majority government	Henri Montas
2021	XXXX	XX.XX%	X.XX%	66 / 179	24	#2	Opposition	Jean-Luc Vallette

Deuxième Chambre

It is important to note that in the Deuxième Chambre, not every seat is up for election. 30 of the 65 seats are "life-seats", or seats held by members for life or until resignation. These seats may be partisan. Every term, the newly elected President appoints 20 new Senators to fill in the office for six years; of these seats, 10 must be non-partisan, meaning at most 10 may be partisan selections. The final 15 are reserved for the country's Bishops and territorial abbots, who are non-partisan. Majority refers to a working majority while plurality refers to the holding of the highest amount of partisan seats in the Chambre.

Election	Deuxième Chambre				Rank	Government	Deuxième Leader
	Life Seats	Term Seats	Total Seats	+/−
1966	0 / 30	10 / 20	10 / 65	10	#2	Minority	Charles Chellon
1972	3 / 30	0 / 20	3 / 65	7	#2	Minority	Charles Chellon
1978	3 / 30	0 / 20	3 / 65	0	#2	Minority	Louis Nofert
1984	3 / 30	0 / 20	3 / 65	0	#2	Minority	Gaston d'Renlie
1990	3 / 30	0 / 20	3 / 65	0	#2	Minority	René Gagné
1996	3 / 30	0 / 20	3 / 65	0	#2	Minority	René Gagné
2002	2 / 30	10 / 20	12 / 65	9	#2	Minority	Claude Bascet
2008	12 / 30	0 / 20	12 / 65	0	#2	Minority	Claude Bascet
2014	11 / 30	0 / 20	11 / 65	0	#2	Minority	Maria Suavern
2020	9 / 30	0 / 20	9 / 65	4	#2	Minority	Chloé Monroyal