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eo:Sociala Demokrata kaj Laborista Partio
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP — in Irish Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is the smaller of the two major nationalist parties in Northern Ireland.
The party was founded in the early 1970s. There is a debate over the intentions of the party's founders, with some now claiming that the aim was to provide a political movement to unite constitutional nationalists who opposed the paramilitary campaign of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and wished to campaign for Catholic civil rights and a united Ireland by peaceful, constitutional means. However others argue that, as the name implies, the emphasis was originally on creating a social democratic party rather than a nationalist party. This debate between social democracy/socialism and nationalism was to persist for the first decade of the party's existance. Founder and first leader Gerry Fitt would later claim that it was the party's decision to demand a Council of Ireland as part of the Sunningdale Agreement that signified the point at which the party adopted a clear nationalist agenda. He would later leave the party in 1980, claiming that it was no longer the party it was intended to be.
The SDLP was the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland from the time of its foundation until the beginning of the 21st century when, in the 2001 General Election and the 2003 Assembly Election, the party was for the first time outpolled by Sinn Féin, the political party allied to the Provisional IRA, who also won more seats than the SDLP.
In the 2004 European elections, it lost its long-held European Parliament seat to Sinn Féin.
Critics assert that the SDLP has now drifted from its nationalist roots, arguing that its position on the question of a United Ireland is deeply ambiguous, perhaps in acknowledgement that many Catholics support the United Kingdom but not Unionist parties. Some see the SDLP as first and foremost a party representing Catholic interests, with voters concentrated in rural areas and the professional classes, rather than a vehicle for Irish nationalism.
It has had three leaders;
The SDLP has served in the current power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, alongside the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Féin. (The powersharing administration is currently in suspension.)
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