Progressive Social Democrats

Social Democratic and Co-operative Party Sȯcydėmscratic nd Samodvẹrc Partẹ Parti social-démocratique et co-opéthâtique
Abbreviation	SDCP
Leader	Zoe Halivar
Deputy Leader	Ned Tarry
General Secretary	Stephen Bradley
Party Chair	Vara Varun
Chief Whip	Helena Sargent
Founded	February 2, 1901 (1901-02-02) (original form) May 1, 1919 (1919-05-01) (current form)
Merger of	ESWI (part) CRP
Headquarters	SDCP HQ, 218 Hall Street, Morwall
Newspaper	The Red Flag
Student wing	Social Democratic Students
Youth wing	Young Social Democrats
Women's wing	SDCP Women
LGBT wing	LGBT+ Social Democrats
Labour wing	CETU
Membership (2019)	489,000
Ideology	Social democracy Co-operatism Democratic socialism Pro-Eucleanism
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	FSI
Euclean Parliament group	ASE
Colours	Red
Chamber of Commons	253 / 600
Chamber of Peers	76 / 300
Euclean Parliament	33 / 114
State legislatures	537 / 1,500
Website
sdcp.org.es
Political parties Elections

The Social Democratic and Co-operative Party (Swathish: Sȯcydėmscratic nd Samodvẹrc Partẹ, Flurian: Parti social-démocratique et co-opéthâtique), also known by the abbreviation SDCP or as the Social Democrats, is a centre-left political party in Estmere, which currently leads a minority government.

Founded in 1901 as the Estmerish Section of the Workers' International, the party organised alongside the Estmerish trade union movement, sharing close links with the Congress of Estmerish Trade Unions. With Sidney Bell as leader, the party grew to be a political voice of much of the working class. The party eventually however fell to severe infighting, chiefly over the Kirenian Revolution, and over the party's response to the Great Collapse. A split materialised in 1919, when "Red" Ed Barton and the council socialist wing of the party walked out of the annual congress, organising their own in opposition. The remainder of the party under Joseph Halstadder then organised a merger with the municipal socialist Independent Labour Committee and the co-operative Co-operative Representation Party, rebranding under the current name. The left-splitters under Barton kept the name ESWI but were organisationally distinct.

The party supported the war effort during the Great War, and under John Henderson briefly became the leading party in the war-time national government from 1930 to 1932. The party initially struggled to assert itself during the peace negotiations, but after Vincent Holmes took over leadership of the party he quickly positioned it as one of the more stable parties on the political scene. Holmes led the party to victory in 1941, organising the reconstruction effort, nationalising a number of industries and establishing the welfare state, while maintaining Estmere's position as a world power. After a brief lame duck administration under Richard Moore, the party returned to opposition until Fabian Young's close victory in 1953. Young's government was notable for reforming planning laws, but lost the support of the Radical Liberals over this issue, and the party lost the subsequent 1955 election, beginning a twelve-year stint in opposition.

The party failed to return to government under Harold Anderson and John Archer, and provided the official opposition to the SDU governments of the time. The party was subject to fraught infighting throughout this time, between the social democratic Youngites and the democratic socialist Archerites. The party eventually returned to power under the unifying figure Kenneth Lawson in 1967. His first government was notable for expanding social security and a number of liberalising bills. The party dominated government under Lawson, William Prentice and David Armstrong until 1976, when it was brought down by the Twin Bushes scandal and rising discontent in the country. The party returned to opposition in 1976, and provided the official opposition to the SDU until 1981, when the newly-formed Reform Party formed its own government; with the SDU as official opposition, the SDCP were relegated to other opposition.

The SDCP faced a crisis of confidence as Reform overtook it as the primary centre-left party in Estmere. It spent the rest of the 1980s in deep ideological conflict, and did not return to relevance until the party under John Hart acted as a junior coalition partner to the government of Heidi Reid. It pulled its support in 2006 on account of Reid's neoliberal response to the 2005 recession. Starting in the 2010s, the party experienced a revival. Nick Lawrence distanced the party from Reid's government, and began to rebuild the party outside of its heartlands. Under Zoe Halivar, the party achieved its best result in decades in the 2018 snap election, with the party overtaking Reform as second-largest. Over the course of that Parliament, Halivar promoted the party to the country, and following the gambled pensions scandal, the party won power in the 2021 election, with Halivar becoming the first SDCP PM in 45 years.

Alongside the Sotirian Democratic Union and the Reform Party, the SDCP is considered one of Estmere's three major parties. It has provided 6 of the 26 post-war Prime Ministers. The party espouses social democracy and co-operatism, and is generally agreed to have a progressive and socially liberal outlook. Zoe Halivar, considered to be on the soft left of the party, has led the party since 2016, and also serves as Leader of the Opposition. The SDCP is a founding member of Socialist Alternative for Euclea and the International Socialist Forum, and in 2019 had a membership of 489,000.

Organisation

Leaders

No.	Name (Born–Died)	Portrait	Term in Office		Party leadership elections
1	Sidney Bell (1861–1942)		2 February 1901	11 October 1904	1901 1902 1903 1904a
2	George Staines (1867–1941)		11 October 1904	4 March 1908	1904b 1905 1906 1907 1908
3	George Dimbleby (1863–1933)		4 March 1908	4 February 1916	1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915
4	Joseph Halstadder (1859–1936)		4 February 1916	25 May 1924	1916 1917 1918 1919
5	Elias Turner (1881–1963)		25 May 1924	6 January 1927	1924
6	John Henderson (1864–1939)		6 January 1927	3 February 1935	1927 1932
7	Vincent Holmes (1881–1951)		3 February 1935	5 July 1949	1935
8	Richard Moore (1888–1965)		5 July 1949	18 October 1949	1949a
9	Fabian Young (1911–1986)		18 October 1949	2 February 1959	1949b 1955
10	Harold Anderson (0000–0000)		2 February 1959	2 February 1964	1959
11	John Archer (0000–0000)		2 February 1964	25 August 1965	1964
12	Kenneth Lawson (1917–1998)		25 August 1965	5 October 1972	1965
–	William Prentice (1918–1996)		5 October 1972	15 April 1973	Acting
13	David Armstrong (1915–2013)		15 April 1973	6 February 1978	1973