Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania

Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania Sozialdemokratische Radikale Partei von Ostischland
Abbreviation	SRPO
Founder	Ludolf Ostermann Joschka Schreiber
Founded	4 June 1976 (alliance) 16 July 1986 (unified party)
Dissolved	15 August 2021
Preceded by	Social Democratic Party Radicals Catholic Labour Union
Merged into	Euclean Werania
Headquarters	Westbrucken
Student wing	Socialist Students of Werania
Youth wing	SRPO Youth
Membership	250,000 (2018)
Ideology	Social democracy Social liberalism Pro-Eucleanism
Political position	Centre-left
European affiliation	Socialist Alternative for Euclea
Colours	Pink
Political parties

The Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania (Weranic: Sozialdemokratische Radikale Partei von Ostischland) commonly abbreviated to the SRPO was a centre-left political party in Werania. Founded in 1976 as an electoral alliance of the Social Democratic Party of Werania (SPO), the Radical Party (RP) and the Catholic Labour Union (KAB) the SRPO was the country's main centre-left party supporting social democracy and social liberalism. In 2021 it merged into the Euclean Werania party.

The founding parties of the SRPO originally competed as an electoral alliance, the Social Democratic Radical Bloc in the 1976 election with the intention to move the Weranian party system to that based around two parties with the SRBO designed to behave like a big tent party of the left, similar to its right-wing counterpart the National Consolidation Party. The SRBO led the federal government from 1984-1999 first in a coalition with the socialist Weranic Section of the Workers' International (OSAI), then with the centrist-liberal Modern Centre Party (PMZ) and finally a "united left" bloc with the OSAI and the Greens. The three parties merged into one in 1986 changing their name to the Social Democratic Radical Party of Werania. During this time the SRPO was led by two Chancellors - Ludolf Ostermann (1984-1993) and Wolfgang Löscher (1993-1999). The 1984-1999 government oversaw a period of intense economic and social reform but saw the SRPO ousted from power after a sustained period of ideological fissures and internal fighting.

The SRPO remained in opposition until 2011 when the party returned to power under Emilia Koopmann who formed a coalition with the PMZ. Koopmann was ousted from office in 2014 due to poor polling results being replaced by Viktor Oberhauser. After the 2015 election which saw the government lose its majority Oberhauser subsequently continued the SRPO-PMZ coalition with parliamentary support from the OSAI and Sotirian Democratic Homeland (SDT). In 2019 the party under Josef Felder lost power re-entering opposition.

The SRPO identifed itself as a modern social-democratic party. It sat in the Socialist Alternative for Euclea group in the Euclean Parliament.

History

Origins

The SRPO came from the unification of three parties, the Social Democratic Party of Werania (SPO), the Radical Party and the Catholic Labour Union (KAB). The Radical party was one of the oldest in Werania, itself coming from a unification of liberal and republican deputies in 1898, who supported a platform of free trade, secularism and representative democracy based on universal suffrage. The Radical Party would govern Werania for three periods - from 1903 to 1909 and 1911 to 1914 under Lothar von Kuehnelt and from 1920 to 1922 under Casper de Montigny. The radical government implemented progressive reforms such as the introduction of a 48-hour workweek and universal male suffrage and a proportional voting system. These governments were first supported tentatively by socialists but von Kuehnelt's enforcement of union busting laws led to an estrangement with socialist deputies. The socialists did support von Kuehnelt's second government particularly it's drive to implement more wide reaching secular laws. However the Great Collapse led to von Kuehnelt adhering to classical economics to implement a harsh austerity budget that resulted in the socialists to withdraw all parliamentary support leading to a snap election which saw the radicals decimated with a conservative coalition taking power.

The assumption of power of the conservative coalition led to a crisis in the Weranian left. The Weranic Section of the Workers' International (OSAI) was split between a moderate faction that advocated a duel strategy of workers' agitation and parliamentary socialism and a radical faction that advocated for violent revolutionary action. The party's strongman Albrecht Küchenthal eventually adopted the duel strategy leading to a split from the revolutionary faction led by Siegfried Höcker who created the Weranic Syndicalist Union (OSU) which through its armed wing the Revolutionäre Kampfgruppen engaged in violent paramilitary activity. The OSAI's duel strategy meant they both created their own paramilitary section, the Volksschutzfront to combat the influence of the Revolutionäre Kampfgruppen and right-wing Soldaten des Reichsbanners, as well as engaging with the centre left in order to create a united front against the conservative parties. The Radical Party in turn went to the left as von Kuehnelt retired and was replaced by Casper de Montigny who came from the left of the party that was closer to social democratic policies.

This culminated in 1918 with the Radicals and Socialists forming the Popular Front (Volksfront) which agreed to strive for the creation of a parliamentary republic whilst spearheading a social revolution in the country. The development of the front was understood to be a compromise for both parties - for the socialists it entailed a recognition of the parliamentary system whilst for the radicals it meant more heavily embracing the notion of a social rather then liberal republic. The Popular Front won a convincing majority in the 1918 election with Küchenthal becoming premier becoming the first Weranian government to be led by socialists. The new government implemented a raft of progressive legislation such as the introduction of a right to strike, collective bargaining, a 40-hour work week, nationalisation of industry, price controls on agricultural goods, expansion of unemployment benefits, a major public works programme and measures against price raises. However Küchenthal was killed by right-wing paramilitaries barely 4 months in office with his replacement, Gustav Kroetz, being less trusted by the left-wing of the OSAI. Kroetz soon became overwhelmed by continuing economic instability and political polarisation opting to slow down the reform programme creating greater trains within the coalition.

The April Revolution split the OSAI with Aurimas Kreickamas, the leader of the left-wing, calling for a similar revolution in Werania and the end to Kroetz' incrementalism. Kroetz's right-wing reformist faction was only a minority of the party leading to him and his supporters to split from the OSAI creating the Social Democratic Party of Werania (SPO) in 1919, ending the Popular Front. The OSAI-SPO split also saw the OSAI's trade union, the Weranian Federation of Workers' (OAV) split with a moderate faction forming the Weranian Federation of Workers'- Workers' Democracy (OAV-AD) which supported the SPO. The radicals de Montigny subsequently formed a centrist coalition with the SPO that had outside support from the centre-right National Liberal Party. The government was unstable collapsing in 1922 when it was replaced by a conservative coalition.

The SPO and Radicals supported many of the big tent coalitions that ruled Werania in the leadup to the Great War and during the war itself both supported the landsmann union with Kroetz briefly serving as premier from 1930 to 1932. The post Great War period however saw the parties diverge, with the radicals going into opposition whilst the SPO supported the Catholic premier Otto Röttgen. The ascendency of the National Bloc governments from 1940 to 1950 saw the radicals and SPO squeezed as the main centre-left parties. Notably in this period with the expansion of voting rights to women the SPO became the larger of the two parties often competing for third place with the Weranian Conservative Party (OKP) whilst the radicals became a minor party. Following the Kirenian-Weranian War the SPO became part of the Tripartite Majority alongside the KSP and OSAI with the three parties committed to entrenching parliamentary democracy, pro-Eucleanism and an expansion of the welfare state. The SPO was not needed for the Tripartite governments to hold a majority but because of mutual distrust between the socialists and Catholics it was seen as a vital mediating force leading to its leader Viktor Beer-Hofmann leading the coalitions throughout its existence. In 1955 however the KSP left the Tripartite majority and reformed a conservative coalition although this move was opposed by the left-wing of the KSP which formed the Catholic Labour Union (KAB) a left-wing Sotirian party. The conservative coalition would in 1957 merge to form the National Consolidation Party (NKP) which unified all the conservative parties save the Sotirian Democratic Homeland (SDT).

The next twenty five years would be dominated by the NKP who would win successive majority or minority governments whilst the OSAI would maintain its status as the second largest party and as such largest party of the left. The SPO, Radicals and KAB would constitute the third bloc in the Bundestag representing the centre-left with no party within this bloc ever attaining dominance over the others. The three parties would often collaborate on a one-to-one basis with the NKP in passing legislation on a variety of issues making them in semi-opposition compared to the OSAI who had no such cooperation with the government. Because of this on and off collaboration these parties never were able to form a union of the left with some politicians - most prominently former premier Beer-Hofmann who dominated the SPO until his death in 1965 - being seen as closer to the NKP then other left-wing parties. The dominance of the OSAI in any serious leftist union also made such a prospect unappealing to the three smaller parties who differed amongst themselves on many policy issues.

Formation and early growth

The death of Beer-Hofmann in 1965 opened the way for a generational change within the SPO with the old guard mostly retiring in the 1960's. The new politicians that emerged such as Frank Schellscheidt and Ludolf Ostermann had entered politics after the Kirenian-Weranian war and were less obsessed over the old disputes that had divided the Weranian left. The idea of a union of the left began to as a result gain traction within some circles although an alliance with the OSAI was still considered to be unlikely and unpopular amongst the parties.

Organisation

Composition (1976-1986)

Name		Logo	Ideology	Position	Member from
	Social Democratic Party of Werania		Social democracy Social corporatism Trade unionism	Centre-left	1976-1986
	Radical Party		Radicalism Social liberalism Anti-clericalism	Centre to centre-left	1976-1986
	Socialist Alternative Party		Democratic socialism Social democracy Left-wing populism	Left-wing	1976-1986
	Catholic Labour Union		Sotirian democracy Sotirian Left Social democracy	Centre to centre-left	1979-1986
	Centre Party		Agrarianism Populism Liberalism	Centre	1979-1986

Leaders

No.	Name (Born–Died)	Portrait	Term in Office		Notes
1	Frank Schellscheidt (1928-2009)		18 March 1976	4 June 1982	Former leader of the SPO.
2	Ludolf Ostermann (1927-)		4 June 1982	16 May 1993	Served as premier from 1984-1992. Merged into a single party in 1986.
3	Wolfgang Löscher (1942-)		16 May 1993	7 June 1999	Served as premier from 1993-1999.
-	Dietmar Preußen (1946-)		7 June 1999	22 November 1999	Interim leader.
4	Lothar Holzmeister (1944-)		22 November 1999	22 November 2007
5	Ellis Koopmann (1965-)		22 November 2007	14 September 2013	Served as premier from 2011-2013.
6	Viktor Oberhauser (1962-)		14 September 2013	17 Febuary 2018	Served as premier from 2013-2018.
7	Josef Felder (1962-)		17 Febuary 2018	1 June 2019	Served as Chancellor from 2018-2019.
-	Konrad Schröder (1954-)		19 June 2019	27 January 2019	Interim leader.
8	Luise Höcherl (1971-)		27 January 2019	15 Augst 2021

Electoral results

House of Deputies

Election	House of Deputies					Rank	Government	Leader
	Votes	%	±pp	Seats won	+/−
1980	5,406,826	22.19%	New	114 / 579	151	#2	Opposition	Frank Schellscheidt
1984	7,087,256	28.70%	+6.51%	157 / 579	43	#2	Coalition government	Ludolf Ostermann
1988	7,895,832	32.81%	+4.11%	224 / 598	12	#1	Coalition government
1992	8,585,721	33.57%	+0.76%	217 / 598	7	#1	Coalition government
1996	8,938,695	31.71%	-1.86%	187 / 545	30	#23	Coalition government	Wolfgang Löscher
1999	6,877,382	23.87%	-7.84%	104 / 545	83	#2	Opposition
2003	7,657,312	24.86%	+0.99%	119 / 545	15	#2	Opposition	Lothar Holzmeister
2007	9,787,191	26.40%	+2.01%	110 / 545	9	#2	Opposition
2011	11,463,728	30.19%	+3.79%	237 / 545	127	#1	Coalition government	Ellis Koopmann
2015	9,175,847	27.12%	-3.07	220 / 545	17	#1	Coalition government	Viktor Oberhauser
2019	6,154,682	17.00%	-10.82%	85 / 545	72	#2	Opposition	Josef Felder

¹Compared to the 1975 seats for the RP and the SPO discounting the 19 seats from those who did not join the party.
²In 1982 the OSAI suffered a split after a vote of no confidence with 68 OSAI Volkstag members defecting to the SRPO bringing their total number to 225 members, meaning they net lost seats in 1983 compared to the start of the election.
³Attained less votes then the NKP but the same amount of seats.

House of Councillors

Election	House of Councillors						Rank	Status	Leader
	Votes	%	±pp	Contested seats	Total seats	+/−
1989	TBA	TBA%	New	85 / 232	85 / 232	85	#2	Minority	Ludolf Ostermann
1993	TBA	TBA%	TBA	32 / 116	72 / 232	13	#2	Minority	Wolfgang Löscher
1997	TBA	TBA%	TBA	29 / 116	61 / 232	11	#2	Minority
2001	TBA	TBA%	TBA	41 / 116	73 / 232	12	#2	Minority	Lothar Holzmeister
2005	TBA	TBA%	TBA	45 / 116	85 / 232	12	#1	Majority
2009	TBA	TBA%	TBA	54 / 116	99 / 232	14	#1	Majority	Ellis Koopmann
2013	TBA	TBA%	TBA	40 / 116	94 / 232	5	#1	Minority
2017	TBA	TBA%	TBA	28 / 116	68 / 232	26	#2	Minority	Viktor Oberhauser
2021	3,258,201	13.45%	TBA	23 / 116	59 / 232	21	#2	Minority	Luise Höcherl