Alliance of Independent Social Democrats

The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (Serbian: Савез независних социјалдемократа, romanized: Savez nezavisnih socijaldemokrata; abbr. СНСД or SNSD) is a Serb political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Founded in 1996, it is the governing party in Republika Srpska, with its leader, Milorad Dodik, serving as the current president of Republika Srpska. The party's vice-president, Željka Cvijanović, is the current member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while SNSD member Radovan Višković is the current prime minister of Republika Srpska. The creation of the SNSD can be traced back to the Independent Members of Parliament Group, which eventually grew to become the Party of Independent Social Democrats. During this time, the party served as the only opposition to the dominance of the ultra-nationalist Serb Democratic Party (SDS), which was led by Radovan Karadžić for the majority of the 1990s. The SNSD was seen as a moderate and non-extremist alternative to the SDS, with many of its members, including Milorad Dodik, being part of the former non-nationalist and multi-ethnic Union of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia. The SNSD's first real electoral success was recorded in 2006, where it won 41 of the 83 seats in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, attracting 44.95% of the popular vote. Since then, the party has gradually abandoned its reformist ideology for a more assertive advocacy of Serbian nationalism, threatening the secession of Republika Srpska from the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina numerous times. This has also led to the party being expelled from the Socialist International in 2012 for "continuing to espouse a nationalist and extremist line".