Social Alliance

Social Alliance
President	Ursu Polarescu
Vice President	Cățeluș Slobozeanu
Founded	October 2017
Dissolved	December 2018
Membership (2018)	23
Ideology	Democratic socialism Socialism Social democracy Social liberalism Libertarianism
Political position	Left-wing
Colors	Red
Anthem	The Internationale

The Social Alliance was a center-left political alliance in Plushunia. At its height, it consisted of four parties: the Toys' Worker Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Social Democracy Party and the Popular Revolutionary Front.

History

Foundation and Hop era

The Social Alliance (AS for short) was formed in 2017 by left-wing parties in response to the formation of the center-right Democratic Convention. At the time of the October 2017 legislative election it consisted of three parties and managed to get over 30% of the votes, but did not win the election. During the Hop era the Social Alliance was the main opposition force and protested against the Hop Cabinet's failed policies and inability to organise the Parliament. During June 2018 the alliance, led by PMJ president Ursu Polarescu, increased dramaticaly in popularity as it became the only real alternative to the dying CD, as PNL was way too small to be senior party in any coalition. The popularity of AS made the Democratic Party and the new Social Democracy Party to join the Social Alliance. At the vote of no confidence against the Hop Cabinet most AS MPs voted for the dismissal of the Hop Cabinet, and the Social Alliance MPs were among the parliament members who resigned to force snap elections.

In government (July 2018 - April 2019)

At the June 2018 snap elections the Social Alliance managed to win a 68% supermajority after promising to repair all the mistakes made by the Democratic Convention, and the MP Ursu Polarescu from PMJ was appointed Prime Minister by the President at the proposal of the Social Alliance parties. During July the Polarescu 1 cabinet elaborated several laws, but did not finish them because of the demise of the cabinet. Around 9 July AS leader Ursu Polarescu declared that the Social Alliance will endorse the then-Deputy Prime Minister Cățeluș Slobozeanu at the 2018 Plushunian vice presidential election. On 30 July the Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats was formed and the Democratic Party left the Social Alliance to join the new ALDe, leaving the AS in parliamentary minority, and forcing it to make a weak coalition with the National Front and to restructure the Polarescu I cabinet and turning it into the Polarescu II cabinet. On 3 and 4 August the 2018 Plushunian vice presidential election was held and the AS candidate Cățeluș Slobozeanu won the election and became Plushunia's 2nd Vice President.

Following the alliance's victory in the presidential election, the member parties' delegations met at the first Extraordinary Congress of the Social Alliance and adopted a new government programme, the "Plushunian road to Socialism", which aimed to turn the country into a socialist state by imposing regulations on the market and the prices and creating "employees' cooperatives". The programme was however poorly received by the population, eventually leading to a series of riots and civil conflicts which came to be known as the Plushunian Civil War.

Demise

Despite the government's victory in the war, difficult postwar situation of Plushunia led to a split between the moderate (PSD, PDS) and radical (PMJ, FPR) parties of the alliance, with the radical camp agressively supporting the "Plushunian road to Socialism" programme as the main programme of the alliance, and the moderate camp proposing a less radical center-left programme and supporting more liberal economic policies. Soon, the split aggravated, with the moderate camp merging into the Social Democratic Party and the radical camp merging into the Plushunian Socialist Party. Afterwards, the roughly equal parties decided to dissolve the Social Alliance because of the increasing ideological gap and the continous disputes between its members.

Policies

Originally, the Social Alliance adopted moderate, social democratic policies, which aimed to improve the quality of life for the citizens by building better residential buildings, hospitals and schools. During the Hop Era and the term of the Polarescu I cabinet the alliance mostly agreed with the privatisation of the economy proposed by the Liberals, albeit it proposed slow, partial privatisation and some protective measures to help the smaller enterprises. However, following the First Extraordinary Congress of the Social Alliance, which was held in early August 2018, the member parties of the alliance decided to adopt new, more Socialist policies, as part of the alliance's "Plushunian road to Socialism" programme. The programme involved the creation of a Socialist economy by establishing calculation-in-kind for the parties and the democratisation and workers' self-management of the companies in which they were employed. The said policies remained the official ideology of the Social Alliance until its eventual demise in December 2018.

Electoral performance

Election	Votes won	Seats won
October 2017 legislative election*	164 / 475	10 / 30
June 2018 snap legislative election*	204 / 300	20 / 30
2018 Vice Presidential election	142 / 352 (first round) 174 / 344 (second round)	1 / 1

* not in the present configuration