Six out of the nine parties in Slovenia’s new parliament are in coalition negotiations on a potential new government that would be led by the until recently political unknown Marjan Sarec. 

No government has been formed since Slovenia’s June 3 general election, as neither Sarec nor Janez Jansa, a former prime minister and leader of the largest party in the new parliament, has been able to form a majority. Most of the small parties in talks with Sarec are fundamentally opposed to Jansa’s politics and want to prevent him from becoming prime minister. 

The potential partners of Sarec’s List of Marjan Sarec (LMS) resumed talks after the far-left Levica decided to continue discussions following 14 hours of internal consultations. If the other five parties and Levica manage to resolve open issues, including the reform of the health system, Sarec will likely become Slovenia’s next prime minister, a role he never actually planned to play.

“The draft coalition agreement is ready for the Left’s [Levica’s] party council to discuss it,” Sarec announced on July 30, Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported.

The LMS took second place in the June 3 elections which gave Sarec credibility to initiate talks with other parties, and that way prevent the first placed Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) led by Jansa from forming a cabinet. 

In contrast to Sarec, Jansa has been active on the Slovenian political scene since the country gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Currently, Sarec can count on the support of the Social Democrats (SD) led by outgoing Minister of Agriculture Dejan Zidan, outgoing Prime Minister Miro Cerar’s Party of Modern Centre (SMC), the Party of Alenka Bratusek (SAB) and Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS). All of them together have 43 MPs and therefore need one more partner with at least three MPs for a government; Levica would add nine.

However, if these talks fail, Slovenia will most likely hold early parliamentary elections in September or October. This would be a new chance for Jansa but likely disaster for all those included in Sarec’s project. The outgoing government, which consists of Cerar’s SMC, SD and DeSUS, is supported by only 28% of the people polled in a survey conducted by Mediana for commercial broadcaster POP TV. The support for the new National Assembly is even lower, at less than 10%, shows the poll conducted among 730 individuals, Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported on July 29. Low turnout typically favours larger parties like Jansa’s SDS. 

Sarec personally has emerged as a significant force on the Slovenian political scene mainly thanks to the political apathy that has spread among Slovenians recently. The former journalist and comedian, who has been mayor of the small Slovenian town of Kamnik since 2010, unexpectedly forced incumbent Borut Pahor to a second round in the October 22 presidential elections. Before his career in politics, Sarec, 40, worked as a journalist at the public broadcaster RTV Slovenija. He formed his party in 2014.