STA, 30 January 2020 - Several parliamentary parties announced on Thursday they were starting preparations for a snap election after the resignation of Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, but their statements suggest they are leaving all options open, including talks on a new coalition.

The Democrats (SDS), with 26 MPs the biggest party in parliament and as such the decisive factor in any coalition talks, said it had already confirmed a preliminary list of candidates for a snap election and formed local campaign teams.

Nevertheless the party is "leaving options open for serious talks with other parties," MP Jelka Godec said after a session of the party's executive committee.

Deputy group leader Danijel Krivec said all options had been put on the table but no decisions had been made. The party plans to wait for other parties to decide what to do and then proceed based on their feedback.

"Our door is always open, it's up to them to make the move now. We weren't the ones ostracising in the past, others did," he said in reference to how parties in the outgoing coalition had refused to talk to SDS after the last election due to SDS's radical platform, in particular on migrations.

There has been some speculation in recent days that SDS leader Janez Janša might step aside and let someone else take the premiership to make a coalition more palatable for potential partners, but Krivec indicated this was not an option.

He said Janša was "the best candidate we have and we're still the party with the largest number of MPs. I think no other option is possible at this point."

Janša did not talk to the press after the meeting.

The Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), fresh from a bitterly contested election for the party presidency, said after a session of its top decision-making bodies today it was preparing for both options and planned to engage in talks on a new coalition if an invitation arrives.

If the party is invited to coalition talks, they will make their demands clear. "All decisions will be adopted by the party's bodies," said the new DeSUS president, Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec.

MP Franc Jurša said the key now was to prepare for an election. "But if a coalition is formed, be it right or left, we have to listen and participate in these debates".

The Social Democrats (SD), another junior partner in Šarec's government, formally initiated preparations for a snap election today by appointing a campaign team and starting the vetting process for candidates.

Since Šarec stepped down the party has advocated a snap election as the best option and party leader Dejan Židan reiterated this stance following a meeting of the SD presidency today.

"I don't want people to look for a thousand and one reasons to extend this, to keep positions," he said about ideas entertained in particular by smaller parties for an alternative coalition.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Šarec ruled out any options that would involve his LMŠ party entering a new government and reiterated his stance that a snap election was the best choice.

He said the onus was now on the SDS and its leader and "if the SDS is not in government, a [new] government will not come about". "It is now up to others to make the move," he said.

Balkan Insight has just published a three-part series looking at the efforts of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban with regard to the “virtual reunification” of the country under his form of “illiberal democracy”, with lavish spending aimed at courting the ethnic Hungarian communities in neighbouring states, as well as the wider media and political scenes. The series looks at Slovenia, Serbia and Romania, and what follows is a summary of the first, “In a Hungarian Corner of Slovenia, a Homegrown Orban”, by  Akos Keller Alant.

2/3 of the country was taken away https://t.co/ZYKJH78pcm pic.twitter.com/HGngXuvChw

— About Hungary (@abouthungary) June 4, 2019

Slovenia Condemns Orban-related Tweet Claiming Prekmurje Was Stolen From Hungary

The story opens in 2016, when a theatrical production of a Hungarian musical was to be staged in Lendava, aimed at Slovenia’s 6,000 or so ethnic Hungarians. However, the Hungarian Self-Governing National Community, or MMONK, which is tasked with representing the community, tried to get the show cancelled, with no official reason given by the president, Ferenc Horvath. Still, the organiser felt that perhaps the real reason was the fact the performance would mean royalties would have to be paid to an institution in Budapest known for its support of liberal causes, including migrants and refugees, a group Orban is among the most vocal in Europe with regard to opposing

Related: New York Times Examines Orban’s Media Allies in Slovenia

The performance went ahead, but since then the theatre company has been disbanded due to lack of funding, while Lili Keep, the women who organised the performance, was forced out of her job as director of the Institution for Hungarian Nationality and Culture, replaced by Horvath’s deputy at MMONK. Keep claims that she was pushed out because she was too liberal, a fact that Horvath doesn’t dispute, although he adds that it was because she was finically too liberal, and couldn’t maintain the Institution’s finances.

This, the story claims, is symptomatic of the control Budapest has over ethnic Hungarians over the border, which is also financial, due to generous spending (especially since 2015), as well as offering other inducements to identify more strongly with the homeland and vote, such as making getting Hungarian citizenship easier. Such efforts, when they make it to the ballot box, see landslide wins for Fidesz (Orban’s party) among Hungarians outside the country.

Victor Orban and Janez Janša at an SDS rally, 2018. SDS' Facebook page

Horvath, since 2018 a deputy in the Slovenian Parliament, is now the main go-between for the governments in Ljubljana and Budapest when it comes the Hungarian community in Slovenia. He has also changed the statues of MMONK and, according to historian Attila Kovacs, a former local councillor in Prekmurje, taken power away from the community and placed it in his own hands.

Related: Parliament Opens Inquiry into Foreign Money in Slovene Politics, Focusing on SDS & Hungary

As Kovacs tells Balkan Insight: “Mr. Horvath uses his power in an authoritarian way. He appoints people loyal to him to every important position, while he marginalises everyone who is critical of his politics.”

The benefits of being winning Horvath’s favour can be considerable, since he’s responsible for assigning the funds received from Hungary. These have grown rapidly in recent years, from just €222,000 in 2015 to just under seven million euros since 2016.

Horvath’s election to Parliament led to an investigation by the state Committee for the Prevention of Corruption, which ordered him to resign as either an MP or president of MMONK, two positions he continues to hold, while – it should be stressed – maintaining his innocence.

Related: Parliamentary Committees Condemn Hungarian Interference in Slovenian Media

While in Parliament Horvath had himself appointed to a special committee investigating whether Janez Janša, the leader of SDS who won the last elections in 2018, but who was unable to form a government, received illegal campaign contributions from Hungarian allies of Orban.

The full article goes on to examine Horvath’s role in the Hungarian language media in Slovenia, the television arm of which was criticized in 2018 by the media ombudsman for being overly focused on the Hungarian government, Fidezs and its supporters. You can find it here.

All our stories on Hungary and Slovenia are here

STA, 29 January 2020 - The National Assembly failed to pass on Wednesday amendments that would abolish supplementary health insurance, a motion which had split the coalition and was one of the reasons why Prime Minister Marjan Šarec stepped down on Monday. They were rejected as 51 deputies voted against and 32 in favour.

Voting against the amendments to the health insurance act were the opposition Democrats (SDS), New Slovenia (NSi) and National Party (SNS), as well as the coalition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and Modern Centre Party (SMC).

Two deputies of the coalition Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) voted against and two abstained, despite the deputy group presenting arguments in favour of the changes prior to the vote.

The amendments were meanwhile endorsed by the coalition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) and Social Democrats (SD) and the opposition Left.

DeSUS MP Branko Simonovič said the legislative proposal did not go about abolishing the current system of compulsory and top-up health insurance in the right way. He expressed concern regarding its effects on the health purse and the state budget.

Similarly, Jani Möderndorfer of the SMC said his party supported the idea to abolish the top-up health insurance but opposed the motion on the table because it does not actually abolish supplementary insurance but merely transfers it to another address while demanding that the budget door is wide open.

The SDS and NSi were also critical of the motion, saying it introduced a uniform contribution which would be collected by the ZZZS public health fund rather than commercial insurers, which collect supplementary insurance contributions now.

Meanwhile, the LMŠ, the SD and the Left presented arguments in favour of the changes, noting that many attempts to change the current health insurance scheme had failed in the past.

Luka Mesec of he Left expressed support to the proposal initially tabled by his party but then heavily modified by the coalition, noting that after 2021, when the bill was to be implemented, there would still be time to find a fairer system of financing.

LMŠ MP Robert Pavšič said the LMŠ had further amended the proposal to raise the monthly contribution for healthcare from the initially proposed EUR 29 to EUR 32 and reintroduce the provision saying that any shortcomings would be covered by the budget.

The SD proposed its own amendment which introduces monthly contributions based on individual's income that would range from EUR 10 to EUR 150, but the proposal was rejected, as were all amendments attached to the act during the course of parliamentary procedure.

After the vote, Mesec announced a new attempt to abolish top-up health insurance during the current term of the National Assembly. "We are not giving up. The battle has been lost, but the war is only beginning."

"Today it became clear who is who, who stands where, who defends the public interest, and who defends insurers. Unfortunately, the abolition has not, even after 17 years of attempts, succeeded," he said in a statement to the press.

According to Mesec, the rejection means that health insurance will keep getting more expensive and that insurers will continue to make tens of millions in profit, while poor people will continue to pay the same monthly contribution as people who are well off.

He presented the statistics showing that some 120,000 people in Slovenia cannot afford top-up health insurance, which means that "we don't have as universal coverage as someone might think."

LMŠ deputy group head Brane Golubović said that in the end, lobbies and insurers had played their role, and regretted the missed opportunity to get rid of intermediaries and transfer extra funds to the public health fund.

"We came far, but in the end, capital defeated people," he said, adding that the LMŠ would continue with the efforts and that this was only one stage in the process.

The discussion last Thursday at two parliamentary boards – education and culture – on the future of the High School for Design and Photography in Križanke certainly qualifies for the list of recent government fiascos that eventually brought to Prime Minister Marjan Šarec resignation Monday morning (at least we hope these are the reasons).

For anyone, and that certainly is the majority of people, who didn’t manage to get through the four-hour-long session, which was televised and is currently available in the national broadcaster’s archive (available here), we list a few jaw-dropping exchanges in which the Ministry of Education’s highest officials (and the Mayor of Ljubljana) turned against the very people they were supposed to take care of, the teachers and students of a public school.

Threats, manipulations, gaslighting, and preaching about “cultured dialogue” was what the public servants of the highest order had to offer when facing concerned professors, students and members of the public, worried that a unique high school in Slovenia, the High School for Design and Photography (SŠOF), may soon be forced to leave the building it calls home.

The controversy begun when the school found out about a letter of intent the Ministry of Education signed with the City of Ljubljana in which it promised to swap its share of Križanke for some land where a new building for the school might someday stand, with August 31, 2022 stated as the conclusion of the deal. The school has resided in Križanke ever since the great architect Jože Plečnik redesigned the former monastery by opening it to the public physically and also by bringing the school inside, making Križanke one of the constitutive elements of the so called University-belt in Ljubljana.

The urgent session of the two boards was called by Levica, with MP Violeta Tomič as its speaker. For the first two hours of the session about 400 SŠOF students, their parents and other protesters gathered in front of Parliament in support of their representatives at the meeting.

The session was called by the left-wing Levica, although the right-wing SDS board member stated that their party was planning to do so as well. In short, Levica proposed to both boards that the letter of intent should be revoked and that the school remain inside the cultural monument.

Violeta Tomič concludes at 00:21:55, and according to the procedural rules the president of the parliamentary board for education, Branislav Rajić, is now supposed to give floor to the Minister of Culture, Zoran Poznič.  

However, getting things off to a bad start at the very beginning, Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković interrupts with a request to speak first, since he doesn’t have time and needs to leave soon. The president allows him to speak “if nobody minds”, which triggers a protest from a board member, MP Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti (Slovenian National Party).

At 00:22:00 a fierce exchange between Janković and Jelinčič ensues, in which Jelinčič insists that Janković waits for his turn and that the state should speak first. The argument, which includes mutual accusations about who of the two had to defend himself in front of the court most recently, comes to the point when Janković at 00:22:45 drops the formal polite form of addressing his interlocutor in Slovenian (from “you” in plural, to “you” in singular). The “debate” then proceeds as follows:

00:24:50 Janković: Naloga mestne občine je, da ščiti lastnino mestne občine v korist meščank  meščanov. Zakaj imamo mi teh 48% [Križank], ne me spraševat, tako to piše, tako je not, jaz nisem delil. Vendar uporabljamo samo 25%. […] Ministrstvo se je obvezalo, da bo do 31. 8. 2022 šolo spraznilo, ker bo imela do takrat šola novo stavbo. Zdaj je nov terminski plan, jaz zdaj to povem, če bo to problem, ne bo nobenega problema podaljšat. Če to pade, tudi ok. Vam pa drugo povem. V kolikor to pade tudi ne vidim nobenega problema.  Šola je  protipotresno varna [sic], govorim o stavbi, Mi bomo s prvim septembrom letos zasedli svojih 48 procentov prostora in to je dejstvo. To kar je naše, bomo pač zasedli in bomo uporabljali v kulturne namene. […] Če bojo začel delat na novih prostorih, da se bo videlo operativno, potem bomo rok podaljšal. Ampak dokler se pa ne začne delat, […], bomo pa naredili to, kar je naše. Mi pač imamo in smo dolžni ščititi našo lastnino v dobro meščank in meščanov. Vi pa lahko sklepate kar hočete, razen, da ukinete mestno občino.

Jankovič then concludes and eventually, without being it his turn to speak, turns his microphone back on, “just a word, since I am leaving” (00:34:08), then he is finally subdued by the president, who ignores his attempts at speaking and proceeds with the session instead, allowing the Mayor to leave.

Following the Minister of Culture, who only gives a short statement, the floor is given to the Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Jernej Pikalo (00:35:27 – 00:48:00).

Pikalo says that there has been a variety of interpretations of the situation which are mostly untrue, so he will address them one by one, “stating facts only, without any emotional interludes”.

He then gives a lecture on contextual reading, and how people tend to misinterpret things when they don’t read the whole document. He then claims that the whole point of the document he holds in his hands, even without the context of the entirety of the remaining text, is hiding in its last paragraph, which he then proceeds to read.

The “document” is a PR message, published on the Ministry’s website, and the last paragraph begins with a statement, that “fears that SŠOF will be left without a roof over its head are therefore ungrounded”, because, in short, the school will soon get a new, better equipped building at a great location, while until then it will remain at its current site.

Despite the warning of a board member, Nina Mavrovič ( at 2:23:10), about the non-binding nature of a PR piece on the Ministry’s website and a binding nature of the letter of intent, which alongside Jankovič’s threat about taking over the premises, perhaps even at the end of this school year, raises a good reason for concern, Pikalo insists on his premise that belief in his promises is positively correlated with the listener’s intelligence, by repeating this same “fact” in his concluding statement as well:

3:40:36 Pikalo: Sedaj, kar se tiče vaših pozivov, jaz seveda mislim, da so dijaki visokih intelektualnih sposobnosti in glede na to, da sem že dvakrat povedal, bom samo še tretjič ponovil. Mislim, da so že prvič dvakrat razumeli. Nihče ne bo nikogar nikamor pošiljal, dokler nova lokacija na Roški ne bo izgrajena.

Pikalo then continues with a predicted timeline of the construction site, stating that it is in truth extremely tight, but if there is a will and, as he can see, the will exists in this Parliament, the goal is totally achievable.

Note that Pikalo was saying this last Thursday, while this Monday began with the resignation of the Finance Minister and then the Prime Minister himself, who cited the current structure of Parliament and the ruling coalition as the reason for stepping down.

After the ministers, guests were invited to enter the discussion with contributions of their own. Let us stop at one of the statements given by SŠOF professor Apolonija Simon, which prompted the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Mitja Blaganje, to reply with a textbook example of gaslighting.

In her speech, (which begins at 01:01:56), Apolonija Simon, describes a meeting with the Mayor, which to her surprise also involved presence of the officials from the Ministry:

1:02:45 Simon: Ko je prišla beseda tudi na to, kaj si želimo, to je bilo vprašanje župana meni, sem povedala, da si želimo nove prostore v bližini križank, kar bi nam omogočalo, da imamo lažje prehode, […], je gospod državni sekretar, gospod Blaganje rekel, da smo za take lokacije predragi. Moram reči, da sem osupnila nad tem odgovorom.

1:09:14 Blaganje: Gospo učiteljico oziroma profesorico na Srednji šoli za oblikovanje in fotografijo bi prosil za opravičilo, ker je javno navedla neresnico. Tega sestanka, ki ga je omenjala, smo se seveda udeležili na vabilo mestne občine Ljubljana in na tem sestanku nikdar nisem izrekel očitanih mi besed. Je pa ta sestanek zaznamoval verbalni spor med G. Brlekom [Festival Ljubljana] in G. Marklom [SŠOF], to je resnica in v eni fazi je ta sestanek potekal v zelo nekonstruktivnem ozračju. Za tovrstne navedbe pa prosim za opravičilo, ker je to zelo velika neresnica, da ne uporabim kakšne druge besede.

Simon is then allowed to take the floor, but only if she wishes to apologise

01:10:10 Simon: Jaz bi želela povedat, da je bila prisotna kar neka množica ljudi: ravnatelj, predsednik sveta, vsi smo slišali izrečene besede, polegeg tega je župam repliciral: Ne, kako predragi, zakaj bi bili predragi? […] Bilo pa je rečeno za lokacijo Rog, za Rogom je parcela, kjer je dalo ministrstvo za šolstvo izvesti preveritveni načrt, kjer bi se nas dalo vpeti noter in v kontekstu te parcele je bilo izrečeno, da je ta lokacija za nas predraga.

Mitja Blaganje then replies:

Hvala lepa za dodatno pojasnilo, vendarle v vaši prvotni izjavi ste trdili, da sem to izjavo izjavil v zvezi z delovanjem SŠOF na obstoječi lokaciji, seveda česa takega nisem izjavil, vljudno vas prosim, da ne trgate izjav iz konteksta, tudi mi smo imeli tukaj prisotne ljudi na tem sestanku in seveda tudi, to ni bilo nikoli izjavljeno.

A note on the background to this exchange: the school staff had previously met with various officials from the Ministry and at a certain point turned down another meeting with the Secretary General, demanding to see the Minister instead. The event, that is – turning down the meeting with the Secretary General. The Secretary General! – including the emphasis and repetition, is described by Pikalo (beginning at 00:43:40) as an example of poor communication etiquette on the side of the school.

Also, “professor” not “teacher” is the correct way to address a high school teacher with a certain level of education, which is the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport’s job to know. It is not that Mr. Secretary General Mitja Blagajne, PhD, doesn’t care about such titles. The Secretary General did state his own title with great pride and did not call himself merely a public servant. Misstating the professor’s title was an expression of contempt, although as a gaslighter he would probably now claim he has always been respectful, and that whoever says otherwise should apologise to all the teachers they just said were not worth all the respect they deserve.

The exchange between the Secretary General and the professor quoted above was the only contribution the former made to the discussion and we cannot but remember the story about three of the Education Ministry’s PR people, who left their jobs in November last year. Minister Jernej Pikalo “has denied any hints that mobbing [in Slovenian the word often refers to workplace harassment in general] was the reason, and  Mitja Blaganje explained that they have not been able to find a common language regarding the payment of additional work” wrote Siol.si at the time.   

After Blaganja, it was time for another Secretary, just Secretary this time, Jernej Štromajer, to throw some of his wisdom at the disrespectful peasants who were sitting before him.

Štromajer opens with the following sentence:

1:22:37 Štromajer: Moram priznat, da sem iskreno razočaran nad tem izvajanjem. Ker ne morem verjet, da sedimo tule že uro in pol in sedaj smo poslušali nek vnaprej napisan traktat, brez da bi se poslušalo, kaj je bilo pred tem povedano.

As expected, he then continues to perform exactly what he tried to criticise in his attempt at disqualifying another professor from the school for reading his statement instead of, perhaps, changing his mind after the minister reiterated – why is there nobody listening? – that there is nothing for the teachers, students and others concerned about the school to worry about:

1:22:55 Štromajer: Zdaj, trditi, da je šola s tem pismom o nameri kakorkoli bila ogrožena je malo smelo rečeno. Ker cilj tega pisma o nameri je ravno nasproten. Namreč, da se problematično stanje, ki je trenutno na šoli, vendarle reši. Lejte, to da šola zaseda prostor, ki ni v njeni lasti, oziroma v njenem upravljanju in po domače rečeno skvota v 23% stavbe v Kiržankah v lasti drugega subjekta, čeprav je to mestna občina Ljubljana, se verjetno vsi strinjamo, da v neki pravni državi preprosto ni vzdržno. In zato je naše ministrstvo s pismom o nameri želelo razrešiti odprta vprašanja, ki so se dolga leta nabirala med MOL-om in državo in eno izmed teh je tudi, kot ste omenili, upravljanje določenih prostorov v Križankah. […] ampak minister vam je danes tukaj jasno povedal, mi je žal, da ne poslušate, da strah, da bi šola ostala brez strehe nad glavo, ne obstaja.

Štromajer is talking about the 23% that was given to the city government by the first instance court in 2007, after the City sued the Ministry for a larger share of Križanke. The Ministry of Education then didn’t bother to appeal, a fact stated in the debate on several occasions, as was the legality of the Minister’s promises, something Štromajer didn’t address. Perhaps he wasn’t listening? In either case, we are very disappointed by your performance, Mr. Štromajer.

At the end of the session, members of the boards voted against the proposals of Levica (with 8 votes in favour and 8 votes against its proposals) and supported the coalition’s conclusions for the Ministry to re-examine the possibility for the school to remain at its current location and report its findings back to the board in three months. Another decision adopted by the coalition members was to put a memorial plaque on a wall of Kiržanke along with a memorial room inside, in memory of a school that was once there.

Just a few days later, the Minister’s assurance that the school would not be pushed out of its current premises have been made obsolete by the fall of the coalition he was a part of, while the 2007 court decision on giving 23% of the school to the City of Ljubljana, the signed letter of intent and Mayor Janković’s threats to kick the school out in the street later this year remain as real as ever.

In conclusion, as Professor Apolonija Simon suggests in her statement (1:04:30), the “chronology of the event(s) in which Križanke was gradually getting lost, gives an impression that the Ministry wants to get rid of Križanke” and, if I may add, does not seem to be very concerned with what happens to the famed school that resides in it, or the students who are studying there.

STA, 27 January 2020 - The government's relative inefficiency and PM Marjan Šarec's realising it would be very hard to secure a majority to appoint two new ministers after the defence and finance ministers have announced stepping down, are the reasons for which Šarec stepped down, pundits have told the STA. They say it is now hard to predict the course of developments.

"Šarec has apparently assessed that given the degree of its inefficiency, the government would not be able to implement certain measures and he would be eventually blamed for it, so he decided to check the situation in an election now rather than any time later," says Domovina news portal editor Rok Čakš.

Andraž Zorko of pollster Valicon meanwhile says there are several reasons for Šarec's resignation, but the key cause was Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj's resignation, announced today.

Zorko says that replacing one minister after Defence Minister Karl Erjavec announced his plan to resign earlier this month would have been a major challenge in itself.

Čakš agrees, saying December's appointment of Angelika Mlinar as cohesion minister "caused this government agonising pain" and "the question is how much energy and time would have to be invested to get a new finance minister through parliament".

However, Šarec' move was not entirely unexpected since he is the only one who could gain from an early election, "while it was harder to imagine he would trigger the process leading to an early election himself".

Zorko believes that while future developments are uncertain, they will depend on the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), saying "the SMC is the key piece on the chess board and SMC leader Zdravko Počivalšek the bishop".

Of course, this is true only if the opposition Democrats (SDS) and New Slovenia (NSi) assess an early election is not a good possibility, he says.

The two conservative parties have 33 MPs in the 90-year parliament, so if joined by 10 SMC MPs, they they would need just another small party - for instance the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) or the three MPs of the opposition National Party (SNS) to form a coalition.

Similarly, Čakš sees the coalition SAB as the main candidate to switch coalitions, since its chances to make it to parliament are rather slim, according to polls.

Among the parties "probably not keen on an early election" he also mentions the SNS, and notes that only a simple majority is needed to appoint a new prime minister-designate.

Should the parties opt to form a new coalition instead of going to an early election, Zorko and Čakč could not anticipate who the prime minister-designate would be.

Zorko finds it likely it would be a non-partisan candidate with strong support in parliament, or NSi leader Matej Tonin or SMC leader Zdravko Počivalšek.

In case of an early election, Zorko expects an unpredictable situation, and Čakš says the interpretation of who is to be blamed for the early election in the media will be crucial.

"This is where Šarec risks the most," says Čaks, arguing that if he manages to convince the public that he found himself in a dead-end and that he needs more votes to run the country successfully, then he could win the election.

Meanwhile, constitutional jurist Ciril Ribičič says an early election could not be disputed because the deadline set by the Constitutional Court to change electoral legislation has not yet expired.

Although it is not good for an election to be held if the electoral laws are not in line with the Constitution, "it's not as bad as it may seem".

Ribičič points to the fact that "only one thing is not in line with the Constitution, namely the different sizes of electoral districts".

In December 2018, the Constitutional Court gave parliament two years to change the legislation.

STA, 27 January 2020 - The LMŠ-led minority government, whose disbanding was announced today 16 months into its term, struggled since its very start with securing parliamentary support as well as with strife in the five-member coalition and with its erstwhile partner, the Left. Serious reforms appeared unattainable, healthcare funding being the latest case in point.

The centre-left government was formed by Marjan Šarec, a novice in the national political arena, and his LMŠ party with the SocDems, Modern Centre Party (SMC), the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) after the relative election winner Janez Janša and his right-wing Democrats (SDS) failed to put together a coalition.

A cooperation agreement with the opposition Left was an important component of the equation, but cracks soon appeared in the relationship with the far-left party, starting with Šarec's hiring of Damir Črnčec, a radical opponent of migration, as national security state secretary in his office.

While the Left managed to push through some of its agenda, mostly to improve the lives of low-income earners, it insisted that the bulk of the pledges made in the cooperation agreement were being ignored.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the coalition's rejection in the autumn of the Left's proposal for scrapping the voluntary top-up insurance system that several governments had attempted to do away with to no avail in the past.

While the Left withdrew from the partnership agreement at the start of November, the coalition pushed ahead with the healthcare funding reform.

The Left's bill was reshaped, but in a way that was not to the liking of Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj, who resigned earlier today. The resignation of Bertoncelj, who did not state a clear reason for his decision, was followed up immediately by PM Šarec's.

Šarec, who insists his resignation was not the result of the differences between Health Minister Aleš Šabeder and Bertoncelj, was also facing the search for a new defence minister, with Karl Erjavec announcing his resignation recently after failing to get reappointed DeSUS leader.

After losing the Left, the minority coalition had come to rely on the opposition National Party (SNS) in parliamentary voting, and the appointment of Development and Cohesion Minister Angelika Mlinar at the end of 2019 already proved a major challenge.

Cabinet staffing had also kept Šarec busy before that, with five ministers resigning before Erjavec and Bertoncelj.

Meanwhile, the need for structural reforms was raised by many during the government's term, but the coalition partners acknowledged on several occasions that adopting them would be difficult in a minority government situation.

On the other hand, the economic boom helped keep the government going, with record high budgets envisaged for 2020 and 2021.

The government managed to slightly tweak pension and tax legislation, while struggling somewhat with bills related to welfare.

It failed to implement Constitutional Court rulings requiring changes to electoral legislation and to funding rules for private primary schools.

The latter case, which has seen the government refuse putting state funding for private schools on a par with that for public schools, led to Šarec being subjected to an SDS and SNS-initiated impeachment vote at the start of 2019.

Šarec, who survived the vote, has recently also had to deal with accusations he help an acquaintance get a job at intelligence and security agency SOVA.

He said today that the LMŠ's 13 MPs and the current coalition did not suffice to meet people's expectations but that this could change with the early election.

The LMŠ remained in the lead in the latest Mediana agency poll commissioned by the private broadcaster POP TV. It gained two points compared to December to poll at 15.1% and the SDS added 1.4 points to 14.1%, showed the results, released on Sunday.

The SD and the Left were tied in third place at 7.2%, the centre-right opposition New Slovenia (NSi) ranked fifth at 6.2%, DeSUS got 4.1% in sixth, while all other parties fell well short of the 4% parliamentary threshold.

STA, 27 January 2020 - PM Marjan Šarec announced his resignation on Monday after Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj stepped down, presumably over differences regarding a bill scrapping top-up health insurance. Šarec said he could not achieve what he had set out to do with the current minority coalition. The most likely scenario seems to be snap election.

Šarec said that he "cannot fulfil people's expectations at the moment with 13 MPs and this coalition", but stressed he could fulfil them after an early election.

He seems eager to find out whether the polls showing 50% support for the government are right and whether the approval ratings are realistic or not.

Most parties also seem to favour going to the polls early, although the possibility of forming a new coalition in this term cannot be completely ruled out yet.

An advocate of the latter option seems to be Zdravko Počivalšek, the leader of the coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC), which Šarec mentioned as a potential pre-election ally. He said he did not see the need for a snap election.

In contrast, Janez Janša, the leader of the largest opposition party, the Democrats (SDS), deems an early election by far the likeliest and best option.

Given the current composition of the National Assembly, Janša believes it would be hard to form a solid development coalition.

But he proposes for the time ahead of the election, which he reckons could be held in the second half of April, to be used to pass what he says are urgently needed laws, including a bill on the demographic fund, a bill to cut waiting times in healthcare and a bill on public procurement in healthcare.

Similarly, the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) wants to push through parliament the bill to cut waiting times in healthcare, and amendments to the penal code to step up prosecution of sex abuse.

The NSi, Left, and the coalition Social Democrats (SD) all favour an early election. The new leader of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), Aleksandra Pivec, said DeSUS was ready for a fresh election but would want to talk things through in the party before taking any decisions.

Meanwhile, the coalition SMC and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) are not keen on snap election, as is not the opposition National Party (SNS).

Both the SDS and NSi indicated that changes to the electoral law needed after the Constitutional Court found the existing legislation unconstitutional were no longer possible ahead of a fresh election.

Responding to the government collapse, employers and trade unions said this would delay the necessary reforms in healthcare, long-term care, housing policy, labour relationships act, pension reform and other fields.

Trade unions said the start of Šarec's term had been promising, with changes to the minimum wage and abolition of austerity measures, but later the government work came to a standstill due to problems with securing a majority.

Representatives of employers think Šarec "cut the Gordian Knot" today, given that there had been no coordinated political direction or predictability in recent months.

As there are many challenges to be tackled, they want Slovenia to get a new government with a clear political mandate as soon as possible.

Analysts believe the reasons for the government collapse were its relative inefficiency and Šarec's realisation that it would be very hard to secure a majority to appoint two new ministers after the defence and finance ministers stepped down.

"Šarec has apparently assessed that given the degree of its inefficiency, the government would not be able to implement certain measures and he would be eventually blamed for it, so he decided to check the situation in an election now rather than any time later," Domovina news portal editor Rok Čakš said.

In the 16 months in office, the minority government of the LMŠ, SD, SMC, SAB and DeSUS, which was formed after the 2018 early election following Janša's failure to form a coalition even though his party won a plurality of the vote, did not implement any substantial reform.

It managed to push through some changes to pension and tax legislation, but fell short of modifying laws on social affairs.

Two important Constitution Court decisions also remain unimplemented, the one demanding changes to the election legislation and the ruling concerning the financing of private primary schools.

Slovenia's 13th government did, however, manage to pass a record EUR 10 billion plus budgets for 2020 and 2012, both with surplus.

Šarec's term as prime minister will end when the National Assembly takes note of his resignation. This could happen as early as Wednesday. The term of the entire cabinet will end at the same time and the government will assume a caretaker role. A snap election could be held in late April.

According to the latest public opinion polls, Šarec is the second most popular politician in the country preceded only by President Borut Pahor.

His LMŠ party is neck-and-neck with Janša's SDS in topping the party rankings. The most recent poll conducted by pollster Mediana put the LMŠ's support at 15.1%, ahead of the SDS, which polled at 14.1%.

Šarec is the fourth Slovenian prime minister to resign, following Janez Drnovšek in December 2002, Alenka Bratušek in May 2014 and Miro Cerar in March 2018.

STA, 27 January - Marjan Šarec, who resigned on Monday, will see his term as prime minister end when the National Assembly takes note of his resignation. This could happen as early as Wednesday. The term of the entire cabinet will end at the same time and the government will assume a caretaker role. A snap election could be held in late April.

The parliamentary rules of procedure say that the prime minister must inform government ministers about the resignation, and has the right to explain the resignation in the National Assembly.

After the parliamentary speaker is notified about the resignation, the matter is put on the agenda of a National Assembly session at the latest in seven days. The National Assembly does not take a vote, but only takes note that the prime minister's term has ended.

As a regular, three-day plenary started today, parliamentary Speaker Dejan Židan said that MPs could take note of Šarec's resignation already on Wednesday.

Židan added that, considering the rules for the further procedure in the case of resignation of a prime minister, a snap election could be held in the second half of April.

Following the National Assembly getting formally acquainted with the resignation, the president of the republic has 30 days to propose a candidate for the new prime minister to parliament.

Following the resignation of Alenka Bratušek as prime minister in 2014, the predominant opinion was that the deadline could be shortened if all qualified candidates renounce the possibility to nominate a prime minister-designate.

If there are no candidates for prime minister-designate, this is also formally confirmed by the National Assembly, after which a new 14-day period starts in which a candidate could be proposed by a deputy group or a group of at least 10 MPs.

If this round is unsuccessful as well, a 48-hour period starts in which MPs may decide whether to go for the third round, and if a new prime minister is not elected, the president dissolves the National Assembly and calls a snap election.

Šarec himself called for a snap election to be held as soon as possible, which in accordance with the relevant law are held not later than two months after the dissolution of the National Assembly.

The term of the current National Assembly will end with the maiden session of the MPs elected in the snap election, which must be held not later than 20 days after the election.

Not later than 30 days after the maiden session, the president must put forward a nominee for prime minister-designate following consultations with the deputy groups.

As a rule, this is the president of the party which has won a relative majority in the election. The nominee is voted on in a secret ballot and is elected with an absolute majority of 46 MPs.

Most parties favour snap election

STA, 27 January 2020 - First reactions to Marjan Šarec's surprise announcement that he was stepping down to seek a snap election indicate most parties favour an early election, while Zdravko Počivalšek, the leader of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) which Šarec mentioned as a potential pre-election ally, does not see the need for a snap election.

Janez Janša, the leader of the largest opposition party deems an early election by far the likeliest and probably the best option. His Democratic Party (SDS) is holding a session of the executive council on Thursday or Friday to decide steps in the wake of Šarec's resignation.

However, Janša proposes for the time ahead of the election, which he reckons could be held in the second half of April, to be used to pass urgently needed laws that Slovenia had been waiting for years or decades. The SDS thus invited other parties to start talks on those laws.

Janša listed a bill on the demographic fund to shore up the pension system, which he said had already been drafted, a bill to cut waiting times in healthcare that had been drawn up by the Medical Chamber and tabled by the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) and a bill on public procurement in healthcare, to be filed by the SDS shortly.

"It may be easier to pass these laws at the time when there's no government, and that those who have opposed these laws, or turned down talks themselves, may be willing to talk. Also, because voters may be more attentive at this time," said Janša.

Given the current composition of the National Assembly, Janša believes it would be hard to form a solid development coalition.

"It may be possible forming a coalition which would do less damage than the one that fell irreversibly apart today. But there are many doubts there as well," said Janša, who was unable to form a government coalition after the 2018 election even though his party won a plurality of the vote.

The opposition New Slovenia (NSi) and the Left, and the coalition Social Democrats (SD) also favour an early election and the new leader of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), Aleksandra Pivec said DeSUS was ready for a fresh election, but would want to talks things through in the party before taking any decisions.

Meanwhile, the coalition SMC and the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) are not keen, as is not the opposition National Party (SNS).

"I don't see the need to have a fresh election at the moment because of the government's resignation," said Počivalšek, the economy minister.

He said that the situation in Slovenia was stable at the moment and could be used to go forward. He was open for talks in all directions provided they benefit one and the other party.

"I had a hunch that something like that would happen, considering what've experienced recently," Počivalšek told reporters after Šarec announced he was stepping down.

Asked whether he would be involved in an attempt to form a new government headed by SDS leader Janez Janša or NSi head Matej Tonin, he said the SMC was interested in cooperation and in what was good for the country: "We don't intends to go left or right, not backward but forward."

Asked whether he would be willing to act as the prime-minister designate himself, Počivalšek said that all options were open.

As to pre-election cooperation offered to the SMC by Šarec, Počivalšek said the party was cooperating with everyone. They were talking how Slovenia could do better with ones and the others.

STA, 27 January 2020 - Marjan Šarec is the fourth Slovenian prime minister to resign, following Janez Drnovšek, Alenka Bratušek and Miro Cerar. Below is a timeline of those resignations.

2 December 2002 - Janez Drnovšek resigns half-way into his third term after being elected the president of the republic. The post of the prime minister is assumed by Anton Rop from the ranks of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), the party headed by Drnovšek between 1992 and 2003.

4 May 2014 - Alenka Bratušek, who takes over as the first female prime minister of Slovenia during turbulent political times, resigns after slightly more than a year on the job over discords within her party. Bratušek resigns after losing to Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković in the vote for the presidency of the Positive Slovenia (PS) party. The resignation is followed by the collapse of the entire government, and the PS deputy group splits into a part loyal to Janković and the other part inclined to Bratušek.

14 March 2018 - Miro Cerar resigns just months before the regular end of his term. While the economic situation in the country improves during the term of his government, problems also pile up and the last straw, according to Cerar, is the annulment by the Supreme Court of the referendum in which voters endorsed the project to build a new railway servicing the port of Koper.

27 January 2020 - Marjan Šarec resigns with the argument that he is not able to meet the expectations from the people with the minority coalition he has at his disposal. He admits that the government has not been able to carry out major structural reforms and calls for a snap election to be called as soon as possible.

Last updated 12:30 27/01/2020

STA, 27 January 2020 - Prime Minister Marjan Šarec has announced he is stepping down in a bid to push for a snap election, saying he could not achieve what he set out to do with the current minority coalition.

"With 13 MPs and this coalition I cannot fulfil people's expectations at the moment. But I can fulfil them after elections," Šarec told reporters on Monday, shortly after it transpired that Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj was stepping down, presumably over differences regarding health insurance.

Related - A Short History of Prime Ministerial Resignations in Slovenia

"People on the ground should say whether they trust me or not," Šarec said, adding that he could not know whether the polls showing 50% support for the government were right and that a snap election would show whether the approval ratings were realistic or not.

He said that even the previous government, which had 36 and later 35 MPs in the 90-strong National Assembly, was not capable of implementing any substantial reform.

"If we head for elections, if there's that will, we have spoken with Zdravko Počivalšek about that, to link up to go together so you didn't have to guess what's happening behind the scenes," Šarec said.

Apart from Počivalšek's Modern Centre Party (SMC), Šarec was also offering cooperation to other local initiatives, lists and initiatives and everyone interested in contesting the election.

However, in his first reaction Počivalšek said that Šarec's resignation did not mean yet there was a need for a fresh election.

Šarec said he was aware that after his resignation "parliamentary kitchen may be set into motion to start forming a new government".

However, he believes the fairest thing to do for citizens as well as for oneself would be "heading for an early election and let people tell whether they trust me".

Looking back on a year and a half in office, he said that on 13 September 2018 when his government took over there were a number of problems awaiting them, including talks with public sector trade unions and budgets for 2020 and 2021.

"In the meantime, we implemented tax optimisation and reduced the tax burden on the holiday allowance, which has had a favourable effect on domestic consumption and people certainly had more in their purses."

He also noted the increase in social transfers, improvements to the situation in the police force, reduction of state debt, and the budgets for 2020 and 2021, the first ones with a surplus.

"Considering the past government, this is a good achievement," he said, adding that the government also saw to the fiscal stability, but said that Slovenia had one of the most rigid fiscal rules in the EU, which needed to be softened.

"The government has sailed safely through many dire straits and I must say successfully," Šarec summed up his record in office, adding that the cabinet adopted measures allowing the country to run on, but that citizens reported many problems that needed to be tackled.

He believes electoral law could have been reformed, "if there were less talks and more will". He also noted the challenge of long-term care and demographic fund and new housing legislation.

A Short Biography of Marjan Šarec, Ex-Comic & Slovenia's Youngest PM