Five Slovenian parties nominate ex-comedien Sarec for prime minister

Five Slovenian parties nominate ex-comedien Sarec for prime minister
Political newcomer Marjan Sarec, who benefitted from a disillusioned Slovenian electorate, edges closer to realising his dream of becoming prime minister. / sarec.si
By bne IntelliNews August 9, 2018

Five Slovenian parties led by the List of Marjan Sarec (LMS) nominated its founder Marjan Sarec as the next Slovenian prime minister on August 8. 

The parliament is due to vote on the nomination on August 17. However, it’s still not clear whether Sarec will be able to command a majority. The five parties behind him have 43 MPs — three short of the 46 needed in the 90-seat parliament. While he is hoping to form a majority government backed by (but not including) the Slovenian Left (Levica), it is by no means certain that the leftwing party’s MPs will support him. 

Sarec, a former journalist and comedian, has been mayor of the small Slovenian town of Kamnik since 2010. The political novice unexpectedly forced incumbent Borut Pahor to a second round in the October 22 presidential elections. He scored a second triumph in the June 3 parliamentary election when his LMS won the second largest number of votes, 12.6% of the total. 

While this is only half the 25% taken by Janez Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), Jansa hasn’t managed to gain the support of enough MPs from outside the SDS to form a government, which gave room for Sarec to pursue his ambition to become prime minister.

Whether he achieves it will depend on Levica, which has seven MPs. The party completed an internal referendum on August 8, but still looks indecisive and reportedly keeps asking for new conditions. One of its MPs, Franc Trcek, has announced on his Facebook page that he will not vote for Sarec’s government.

The other potential obstacle on Sarec’s path toward the PM post is the coalition agreement between the five parties that no one outside has seen. The Slovenian public speculates that even Sarec himself doesn’t know its full contents, since negotiations have been lasting more than two months, during which he has been changing stances constantly. For example, he initially stated that he would never accept a nomination if he didn’t have the support of at least 46 MPs, but he has been nominated by only 43.

One of the LMS’s partners now appears to be wavering. The unclear coalition agreement is understood to have been behind the Party of Alenka Bratusek’s (SAB’s) position that, as reported by local media, it will only decide on being part of Sarec’s minority government after a protocol with Levica is harmonised, the partnership agreement is finalised and ministerial appointments decided.

Without the SAB, Sarec can count only on the support of the parties that ran the previous government — the Social Democrats (SD) led by outgoing Minister of Agriculture Dejan Zidan, outgoing Prime Minister Miro Cerar’s Party of Modern Centre (SMC) and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS). 

Even though the three parties barely obtained 25% of the votes together, they play a key role as they still have the option to change the political direction of the country by switching from the LMS to the SDS. 

Miran Videtic, director at VI-PU, a management consulting company based in Kamnik, the small town where Sarec is mayor, believes this is still possible. Even though all three claim they don’t want to be in coalition with Jansa, a decision to put their political differences with the SDS aside and opt for a more stable government cannot be ruled out. 

“As well-experienced politicians, it's up to them now to show their commitment to the state and step up with a sustainable solution. Because, a government of five, eventually four, supported by an additional one, eventually an additional two parties is not a guarantor of stability. They know how serious and tough job leading a government is, and shouldn’t let something like this happen,” Videtic told bne IntelliNews.

He believes that they can restart talks with the conservative New Slovenian (NSi) which could be a bridge with the SDS.

“Jansa can nominate another person from his party as PM. This way, Slovenia would have a way more stable government and not a minority one with [only] promised support in parliament,” Videtic added.

Since Sarec’s party still doesn’t have a programme, it is hard to define his political orientation. When it comes to his partners, they are a mix of centrists and leftists. Cerar’s SMC and SAB are both centrist, while SD and DeSUS are on the left.

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