PM Could Leave Office Wednesday, Most Parties Favour Election

By , 27 Jan 2020, 15:02 PM Politics
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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.

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