the party emerged from the democratic party party of slovak revival (sso) which had been a bloc party within the communist-dominated national front of the čssr since 1948. in december 1989, at the end of the velvet revolution that ended the communist rule in czechoslovakia, the sso decided to change its name to democratic party, claiming to be a continuation of the historical democratic party that had existed from 1944 to 1948 and had been the strongest party in slovakia during the immediate post-war period before the communist takeover.