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.
Hagyari was replaced by Ján Langoš, the former minister of the interior of Czechoslovakia, in 1995.
In the course of the subsequent dissolution of the Slovak Democratic Coalition in 2001, some members left the Democratic Party (Ivan Mikloš, for example, became a chairman of the newly founded Slovak Democratic and Christian Union), and František Šebej became the new chairman for short time and was quickly replaced by Ľudovít Kaník.
Shortly before the election however the party withdraw its candidature and recommended its voters to vote for the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) of Mikuláš Dzurinda.
After a scandal, however, Kaník left the government in October 2005 and talks about a merge of the Democratic Party with the SDKÚ were announced.