Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 3 June 2018. The elections were originally expected to be held later in June 2018, but after the resignation of Prime Minister Miro Cerar on 14 March 2018 all parties called for snap elections. They were the third consecutive snap elections after 2011 and 2014.
On 14 March 2018, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia delivered a judgement regarding the railway referendum, held in 2017 on the construction of a second railway connection from Koper to DivaÃÂa. In the judgement, the court annulled the results and ordered a new vote. The railway link was the biggest project of the Cerar cabinet.
Later that day, Prime Minister Cerar announced that he would resign from the post at a press conference following a cabinet meeting. Cerar explained that he had resigned due to bad relations within the coalition between the Social Democrats (SD) and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) following a decision of the Supreme Court earlier that day, which he stated would slow down the infrastructural development of Slovenia due to strikes and demands of public sector trade unions. The following day, he sent his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly. Cerar was the second consecutive Prime Minister after Alenka Bratuà ¡ek to resign. The two previous Prime Ministers, Janez Janà ¡a (2012âÂÂ2013) and Borut Pahor (2008âÂÂ2012), were removed from the office by vote of no confidence, meaning that Janà ¡a's first term in office (2004âÂÂ2008) remains the most recently completed full term in office.
After the resignation of a prime minister, a new candidate can be nominated by the president. However, President Borut Pahor announced after a meeting with Cerar that he would not nominate anyone for the post. Members of the National Assembly also announced that they will not nominate a candidate, and called for early elections.
According to the Constitution, regularly scheduled elections should have been held no sooner than two months and no later than 15 days before the expiry of four years from the first session of current National Assembly. Elections were therefore expected to be held between 1 June and 15 July 2018. Following the resignation of Cerar, elections were held on 3 June 2018.
On 20 March 2018, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) announced that after consultations with President Pahor they were calling for elections to be held on 10 June 2018 and that they would nominate a candidate for prime minister to postpone the elections if needed. The Modern Centre Party (SMC) also called for elections to be held at a later date due to the ongoing procedure to adopt a constitutional law protecting the country's biggest bank, NLB, from Croatian actions in violation of international agreement between the countries as well as the upcoming process before the European Court of Justice on arbitration between Slovenia and Croatia. On the same day, independent MP Janko Veber announced that he would try and nominate himself for the position of interim prime minister, though none of the political parties expressed its support.
At the time of Cerar's resignation, four investigative commissions were ongoing in the National Assembly. Two of them are investigating banks (one on why an injection of â¬3.2 billion of equity capital was needed during the premiership of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek and the other on the possible funding of terrorism through Slovenian banks), one is looking at corruption during the construction of the à  oà ¡tanj Thermal Power Plant (TEà  6); and the other investigating corruption in healthcare system. All four commissions are expected to issue final reports in April and May, which must be approved by a vote in the National Assembly. Some current politicians are expected to be charged with responsibility for the scandals, including Janez Janà ¡a (SDS) and Borut Pahor (SD). It was suggested in the media that Social Democrats may be in favour of early elections so that the commissions could not finish their work.
On 14 April 2018, after no candidate for the prime minister was nominated, President Pahor dissolved the National Assembly and decided elections will be held on 3 June 2018.
The Italian minority representative in the National Assembly, Roberto Battelli, who has held the post for seven consecutive terms and was the only one to hold this position so far, announced on 16 March 2018 that he would not run again in the following elections. He was one of only two representatives (the other being Janez Janà ¡a) to be elected in every election since Slovenia gained its independence in 1992 from Yugoslavia.
During the signing of a treaty with Russian company Gazprom to supply Slovenia with natural gas on April 13, 2018, the Russian ambassador to Slovenia Doku Zavgayev publicly offered support to DeSUS. This was seen as a diplomatic scandal in Slovenia and an act that violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) according to Speaker of National Assembly Milan Brglez (SMC). However, Foreign Minister and DeSUS president Karl Erjavec, a supporter of good relations with Russia, did not see the act as a violation of diplomatic protocol, saying that the ambassador only supported their program and that he hoped other ambassadors would also support it. The Slovenian media speculated that the act could have been pre-arranged between Zavgayev and Erjavec. Former foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel also criticized the Russian ambassador, saying he violated Article 41 and Article 42 of VCDR, which explicitly forbids interference in the internal affairs of a host state. Chairman of the National Assembly Foreign Politics Committee Joà ¾ef Horvat (NSi) said that he had never seen anything like it. President Borut Pahor made no statement about the matter. This was the second time a foreign ambassador had interfered in Slovenian internal affairs after American ambassador Joseph A. Mussomeli had offered his help in forming a government coalition after the 2011 elections, for which he was criticized by then-President Danilo Türk. Ambassador Mussomeli was later called for consultations by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain his statements. Then Ambassador of Slovenia to the United States Roman Kirn (now LMà  ) also met with representatives of State Department.
On 19 April 2018, two Modern Centre Party (SMC) MPs, Branko Zorman and Bojan Krajnc, left the party after National Assembly did not pass Zorman's bill that would liberalize gambling market in Slovenia (which is according to Zorman under control of Social Democrats), saying that party supports corruption (Prime Minister Cerar personally intervened in the SMC Deputy Group and asked MPs to vote against the bill). On that day Simona Kustec Lipicer MP, leader of the SMC in the National Assembly announced that she would not run again in the 2018 elections. However, the party denied Zorman's accusations, saying that Zorman is not pleased with him not being one of the candidates in the 2018 elections and that Krajnc was not satisfied with the electoral district he would have run in.
On 23 April 2018, Milan Balaà ¾ic (NSD) accused President Borut Pahor of acts which brought Slovenia under the subordination of another country as he had signed the Arbitration Agreement between Croatia and Slovenia when Prime Minister. This is the second charge for President Pahor since 10 April 2018, when the National Assembly charged him in the Final Report of "TEà  6 Investigative Commission". Solidarnost subsequently started a petition calling for Pahor's resignation. In response, Pahor said that he had already paid for these actions when he lost the 2011 elections.
On 24 April 2018, Slovenian media reported that Matej Tonin (NSi) possessed documents that proved that foreign minister Karl Erjavec (DeSUS) has worked for Croatia during Arbitration between the countries. Tonin informed MPs on the content of the documents at a closed session of the National Assembly. Tonin also stated that he could not release them yet because they were still a state secret. DeSUS accused him of lying.
After parties submitted their candidature lists, some media questioned which MPs supported the lists of candidates of the Party of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek and the party Good Country. The Party of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek has only 2 MPs (Alenka Bratuà ¡ek and Mirjam Bon Klanjà ¡ÃÂek) and Good Country has only one MP (Bojan Dobovà ¡ek), while to submit a list of candidates, the signatures of 3 MPs are needed. The State Election Commission refused to provide the names of the MPs that supported the lists of candidates. Media also stressed that not announcing the names of the supporting MPs is against Good Country's efforts for transparency in politics. According to the media, one of the MPs that supported Good Country's list is Franc Laj, former MP for Modern Centre Party (SMC), now forming Deputy Group of Independent MPs in the National Assembly, together with Bratuà ¡ek, Bon Klanjà ¡ÃÂek and Dobovà ¡ek. The names of the other two MPs remained unknown, though some media speculated that Branko Zorman and Bojan Kranjc, also former SMC MPs, who left the party just before the beginning of the campaign, could have supported the candidature lists. MPs of Social Democrats and Modern Centre Party (Dobovà ¡ek was elected as SMC MP in 2014, but left the party soon after the elections) were also said to have offered their signatures. Media later reported that SMC MP Vlasta PoÃÂkaj supported candidature lists of Party of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek and Marija Antonija KovaÃÂiÃÂ, DeSUS MP, supported the candidature list of Dobovà ¡ek's Good Country.
The official election campaign began on 4 May 2018. The main topics of the campaign were relations with Croatia (arbitration, NLB), the public healthcare system, banks and corruption, hate speech, the level of the minimum wage and pensions, the level of poverty, as well as foreign policy and the positioning of Slovenia in the international community, especially relations with the United States.
On 5 May 2018, Slovenian media reported that the list of candidates that United Right submitted in the 6th constituency (Novo Mesto) had been rejected because it was not formed according to the 'gender quota' law, which stipulates that at least 35% of the candidates much be of the opposite sex. United Right submitted a list with 7 male and 2 female candidates, but both female candidates would run in two electoral districts each. The party also contested the decision of the Electoral Commission of the 6th constituency in the Supreme Court, which rejected their appeal on 8 May. The incident was seen as damaging to the party, since its leader, Aleà ¡ Primc, would run in this constituency. The Electoral Commission of the 5th constituency rejected the list of United left and Unity for a similar reason. According to the head of Unity, Janko Veber, the Supreme Court rejected their appeal; he added that the party would contest this decision in the Constitutional Court. However, according to the law a decision by the Supreme Court is final, said Director of the State Election Commission Duà ¡an VuÃÂko. Unity proposed delaying the election until the verdict of the Constitutional court after the Supreme Court rejected United Right's appeal as well and they proposed the same. On 14 May, the Constitutional Court rejected United Left's appeal. On 7 May, United Right's list of candidates in the 1st constituency was rejected as well for the same reason as the one in the 6th constituency since Metka Zevnik, another key candidate would run in this constituency, the party lost its possibilities to reach the threshold of 4%, Slovenian media reported. This problem opened a broad discussion on gender quotas in politics in Slovenia. The State Election Commission reported on 8 May that the list of Party of Slovenian People in the 2nd constituency had been partially rejected due to a candidate on the list that died in 2017 and was then removed. It also reported that the Social Democrats and the party Andrej ÃÂuà ¡ and the Greens of Slovenia (AÃÂZS) had put the same candidate on their lists. The candidate was removed from the list of Andrej ÃÂuà ¡ and the Greens of Slovenia because the list of Social Democrats had been submitted first. Due to the removal of the candidate from the list of AÃÂZS, the list in the 3rd constituency was rejected by the State Election Commission (DVK) on 9 May for not reaching the gender quota. Media stressed that two of the four members of the DVK who voted to reject the list were appointed by Social Democrats and SDP (which is the former party of Andrej ÃÂuà ¡). The Supreme Court annulled the decision made by DVK on 12 May.
Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Janez Janà ¡a, came to stump with Janà ¡a in mid-May at a rally in Celje, declaring: "If Europe surrenders to mass population movement and immigration, our own Continent will be lost [...] The aim is to settle among us people who do not belong to our culture, and who will want to live here according to their own religions and customs". The Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) also ran on an anti-immigration platform. One of the SDS's posters depicted migrants and refugees behind a stop sign. In a pre-election debate, a party lawmaker said that "no migrants means a secure Slovenia". Hence, a frequent topic of election debates was hate speech, especially due to Janez Janà ¡a and other members of SDS, who are frequently involved in discussions which include hate speech, especially on Twitter. Lucija Uà ¡aj and à ½an MahniàMP, both SDS and candidates in the elections, were exposed because of their activity on Twitter, where they frequently publish statements that can arguably be recognized as hate speech against homosexuals, migrants, Muslims, or political opponents.
The 90 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods. 88 are elected by open list proportional representation in eight 11-seat constituencies and seats are allocated to the parties at the constituency level using the Droop quota. The elected Deputies are identified by ranking all of a party's candidates in a constituency by the percentage of votes they received in their district. The seats that remain unallocated are allocated to the parties at the national level using the d'Hondt method with an electoral threshold of 4%. Although the country is divided into 88 electoral districts, deputies are not elected from all 88 districts. More than one deputy is elected in some districts, which results in some districts not having an elected deputy (for instance, 21 of 88 electoral districts did not have an elected deputy in the 2014 elections). Parties must have at least 35% of their lists from each gender, except in cases where there are only three candidates. For these lists, there must be at least one candidate of each gender.
Two additional deputies are elected by the Italian and Hungarian minorities (one each) via the Borda count.
The table lists all the parties that expressed their intention to participate in the elections. SMC, SDS, DeSUS, SD, Levica, NSi, SAB, AÃÂZS, DD and Unity were represented in the National Assembly. Not all of the following political parties would take part in the elections, due to the criteria set by the law (candidate lists supported with signatures of 3 MPs or 100 signatures in each constituency), especially the smaller ones.
Parties had to form their lists of candidates for each constituency by 3 May 2018.
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Janez Janà ¡a became the only MP to be elected in every election since independence. Several former MPs returned to parliament, including Zmago JelinÃÂiàPlemeniti (SNS) and Brane Golubovià(LMà  , previously PS). All presidents of parliamentary parties were elected except Alenka Bratuà ¡ek (SAB) and Karl Erjavec (DeSUS).
After the election, Janà ¡a stated that SDS would do everything in their power to form a stable government. He also expressed the opinion that it was impossible to form a new government without SDS. Articles in the newspaper Delo noted that although SDS had won the most votes, it had not won the election as it would be difficult for the party to form a coalition, since Janà ¡a had acted divisively in the past, making potential coalition partners wary. à  arec was viewed as the key player, either as a potential coalition partner with SDS (a scenario that à  arec denounced) or as the prime minister-designate if Janà ¡a would fail to form the government.
Although losing a large share of the vote in comparison to the 2014 election, the result of SMC was viewed as a success as the party did not have a strong traditional voting base. With hindsight, Cerar's decision to resign as PM was seen as a smart tactical move.
The results of The Left and Party of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek were seen as a success for these parties, while SD was seen as losing votes to the Left. DeSUS got fewer MPs than in 2014, possibly because their alliance with Zoran Jankoviàhad not paid off. NSi increased the number of seats but Tonin nevertheless offered his resignation to the party, not having fulfilled his goal of reaching above 10%.
Party leaders Alenka Bratuà ¡ek of PAB and Karl Erjavec of DeSUS did not get elected into the parliament.
The return of SNS after 7 years of absence was viewed as a side-effect of the nationalist rhetoric in the media. JelinÃÂiÃÂ stated that he was interested in joining the next government as minister of culture.
SLS, once an influential party that participated in several governments, again failed to reach the 4% vote threshold, likely at the expense of SDS. Marko Zidanà ¡ek, the party president, immediately resigned.
Some European politicians congratulated Janez Janà ¡a for his victory, among them the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament.
Several international media, including BBC, CNBC and Al Jazeera, reported on the election result, labelling SDS as "anti-immigration" party and noted that the formation of a stable government would be difficult. The New York Times highlighted Janà ¡a's connection to Viktor Orbán, the PM of Hungary, who openly supported SDS, including with Hungarian companies financing the pro-SDS media.
By law, the opening session of the National Assembly must take place within 20 days of the elections. It was convened by President Borut Pahor for 22 June 2018 at 11:00. The speaker of the National Assembly will be elected at the session. The speaker is usually elected among the MPs of the second largest coalition party, though this is not a rule. Milan Brglez (SMC) was elected speaker in 2014 and France Cukjati (SDS) in 2004.
First session will be presided over by Peter Joà ¾ef ÃÂesnik (SAB), who is the oldest of the elected MPs.
In the first session only temporary speaker of the National Assembly could be elected, since there is still not outlines of the new coalition. If Speaker will not be elected, Peter Joà ¾ef ÃÂesnik will become acting speaker until speaker is elected.
Deputy speakers of the National Assembly are expected to be elected later after official formation of the coalition. Two deputy speakers will be elected among the MPs of the coalition parties and one will be elected among the MPs of the biggest opposition party.
Before the constitution of the National Assembly, parties have to name temporary leaders of the political groups. Temporary leader meet with the previous speaker of the National Assembly to organise constitutional session of the new NA, including agenda of the session, members of the Commission for Public Office and Elections, which will convene during the first session to confirm mandates of the elected MPs, and sitting order. SDS surprised with naming Danijel Krivec instead of Joà ¾e Tanko, who led the group of SDS for the last 13 years. A reason for that could be disagreements between Tanko and Janez Janà ¡a and his disobedience. For example, Tanko was the only member of SDS group that voted in favor of same-sex marriages in the last term and SDS later took part in the campaign against the law in the referendum. In SMC, there were also some internal dissents when party named Igor ZorÃÂiàas leader instead of Milan Brglez, who wanted the position himself.
On 18 June temporary leaders of political groups had a meeting with Speaker Milan Brglez to discuss the first session. Joà ¾e Tanko (SDS) was chosen to be named President of the Commission for Public Office and Elections.
Matej Tonin had support of the all parties, except The Left.
On 12 June, Marjan à  arec said that LMà  will not propose a candidate for the speaker of the National Assembly. SD claimed the position, since it will be the second biggest coalition party, if Marjan à  arec forms coalition.
If Miro Cerar is elected Speaker it will be the first time that sitting prime minister is also president of the National Assembly. According to the Legal Service of the Government of Slovenia, positions are compatible, but only for a short period of time.
Before the first session Marjan à  arec stated, that Matej Tonin (NSi) will be nominated for the Speaker by LMà  , SD, SMC, NSi, SAB and DeSUS.
Pahor announced before the elections that he would grant a mandate to the winner of the elections. On 3 June, he repeated his statement and Janez Janà ¡a was granted a mandate to form a coalition government, the third time he had the opportunity to do so, after 2004 and 2012. However, all of the centre-left and left-wing parties (LMà  , SD, SMC, the Left, SAB and DeSUS) publicly declared that they would not join a government under Janà ¡a and the SDS, meaning Janà ¡a could only form a minority right-wing government with NSi and SNS, with the support of either LMà  , SD, SMC or the Left, or court both DeSUS and the centrist list of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek, in order to win a majority. A centre-to-centre-left government under the leadership of Marjan à  arec was considered more likely to be formed, consisting of LMà  , SD, SMC, SAB, DeSUS and NSi or the Left, though NSi was seen as more likely to be invited to join the coalition due to the requirement of the Left for any coalition agreements to include a referendum on NATO membership, something strongly opposed by all other parties. Because of the large number of parties, it was expected that it would be difficult to form a government. Some of the political analysts had not ruled out the possibility of new snap elections in November if à  arec failed to form a government.
On 6 June, Marjan à  arec met with Alenka Bratuà ¡ek, and further meetings with Miro Cerar (SMC) and Dejan à ½idan (SD) took place on 7 June. à  arec stated that he was willing to accept the mandate to form a government only if there will be a clear will among potential coalition partners to form a government. Dejan à ½idan (SD) stated that he expected that leaders of the parliamentary groups prepare the outlining of a coalition agreement before meeting with President Pahor to consult about granting à  arec the mandate. à  arec also announced that he would invite all the parties, except SDS, for talks to see what are the possibilities to form a government.
On 7 June, Pahor met with Janà ¡a to discuss his possibilities to form a new government. Pahor once again repeated that he was going to grant a mandate to Janà ¡a, but Janà ¡a said he would not accept the mandate if another 46-seat strong coalition was viable. Janà ¡a also did not explicitly rule out the possibility to stand down as potential prime minister-designate and let someone else from his party take the post and form a government. Pahor said that he preferred that the SDS would form a government, as governments formed by parties that did not win elections in the past had been prone to instability, adding governments of Janez Janà ¡a (2012) and Alenka Bratuà ¡ek (2013) as examples. à  arec replied that those two governments cannot be compared with his potential coalition, as Janà ¡a's government was removed from the office because of the corruption allegations and Bratuà ¡ek's government was destabilized by her own party, when Jankoviàhad to resign as leader of the party due to corruption allegations as well and Bratuà ¡ek took over the party. Matjaà ¾ Han (SD) said in TarÃÂa (political show on RTVSLO) that Social Democrats would not talk with Janà ¡a about forming a coalition, since talks with à  arec had already u.
On 8 June, Marjan à  arec met with Karl Erjavec (DeSUS) to discuss future cooperation. Matej Tonin (NSi) also confirmed talks with à  arec. Meanwhile, SDS was still not commenting on their activities, but Tonin confirmed talks with them as well.
On 12 June, NSi rejected the offered resignation of president Matej Tonin, who offered resignation after the party did not reach 10% of votes in the election, which had been repeatedly stated by Tonin as his goal in the election. The main reason for not accepting his resignation party was stated as that they improved their result and gained 2 new MPs.
Media reported on 14 June that Modern Centre Party (SMC), Party of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek (SAB) and List of Marjan à  arec (LMà  ) had agreed to merge into an alliance to form a central liberal bloc.
On 15 June, SDS stated that they would draft a coalition treaty which would later be sent to all parliamentary parties as a basis for negotiations. Later that day, DeSUS rejected Karl Erjavec's resignation as president of the party. Erjavec offered his resignation after a poor result in the election, which saw the party lose 5 MPs.
On 26 June Executive Committee of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) expelled Milan Brglez from the party in a unanimous decision for that his self-candidature for Speaker of the National Assembly, since Miro Cerar did not have support of potential coalition partners (LMÃ Â , SD, NSi, SAB and DeSUS) to become Speaker himself. The executive committee also blamed Brglez that he did not respect the decision of the parties and had been making statements that were opposite to the statements of Cerar and other party officials. As example they added that Cerar supported US missile strikes against Syria earlier in April, while Brglez did not, stating that these acts are against international law and Slovenia's constitution.
On 2 July President Borut Pahor began the first round of consultations with leaders of the political groups in the National Assembly. Danijel Krivec (SDS) said that SDS supported their president Janez Janà ¡a as candidate for new prime minister. Brane Golubovià(LMà  ) asked President Pahor if he would make another round of consultations on Friday and that they would support giving the mandate to Janez Janà ¡a first. Matjaà ¾ Han (SD) and Igor ZorÃÂià(SMC) said that they would only support Marjan à  arec as prime minister. ZorÃÂiàalso said that they could join a coalition with New Slovenia or The Left. Matej Taà ¡ner Vatovec (Levica) said that they would not support any of the candidates.
On 16 July, after a meeting of the executive council of New Slovenia (NSi), its president Matej Tonin announced that NSi would withdraw for negotiations to form a government under à  arec. The decision was expected, even after parties negotiated for almost 12 hours on 14 July to finalize the coalition agreement. à  arec stated after negotiations that they were successful and that significant progress had been made.
After Matej Tonin (NSi) announced on 24 July that NSi would not further negotiate to form coalition under LMà  , Marjan à  arec (LMà  ) announced next day that central parties LMà  , SD, SMC, SAB and DeSUS would begin official coalition negotiations with The Left. Coordinator of The Left Luka Mesec confirmed that the party had received an invitation for negotiations. On 31 June, Levica refused to join the coalition but was prepared to support a minority government.
On 2 August, Miro Cerar sent a message to members of SMC in which he expressed his doubt about stability of a minority government that could be formed, however he still stressed that they support à  arec as new prime minister. It was also reported that The Left presented a project of the government coalition of what they wanted it to look like, which did not have any ministries reserved for the Party of Alenka Bratuà ¡ek, so the SAB decided they would not join a minority government with their proposed-ministers, but would support the government from the opposition in order to achieve a minority government with the backing from The Left.
On 6 August, Marjan à  arec has said he expected to get the mandate of forming a minority coalition. Later on 7 August, it was said that on the 8th of August, the LMà  , SD, SMC, SAB, and DeSUS would âÂÂendorse the nomination of Marjan à  arec as PM-designateâ and that there would be a vote on 13 August. Mr. à  arec was also hoping that The Left will also endorse his nomination. It had been said that the five parties wanted the SD leader, Dejan à ½idan, to be named speaker, if the coalition is formed, although it was not a requirement for the SD to join the coalition, as it is a âÂÂtradition for the job to go to the second-largest coalition partner,â which would be the Social Democrats.
These positions were claimed by some of the leaders of the parties as their conditions to join coalition:
A government was finally formed on 13 September by a LMS-SD-SMC-SAB-DeSUS coalition with support from Levica.