The council of Slovenia’s Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), part of the four-party government led by conservative PM Janez Jansa, decided on December 17 to leave the cabinet.

The move is another blow to Jansa, who has been criticised lately for his government's grip on media and his right-wing ideology. DeSUS’ decision will leave the Jansa government with three coalition partners  and 46 MPs, giving it a wafer-thin majority in the 90-member parliament. 

“The council of the DeSUS party has confirmed that DeSUS party is leaving the coalition of Janez Jansa. The party council also supported [DeSUS leader] Karl Erjavec as a candidate for prime minister,” the party said in a Facebook post.

"I must say that there have been many comments on the work of the coalition. The members of the council are particularly disturbed by the work of the PM," Erjavec was cited by Zurnal24. 

The Slovenian parliament endorsed the new 16-member Slovenian government led by Jansa on March 13, 2020, following the resignation of PM Marjan Sarec. The coalition now consists of Jansa's right-wing populist Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), the Modern Centre Party (SMC) and New Slovenia (NSi).

“We do not want the ‘Orbanisation’ of Slovenia, an autocratic system, we do not want people to be afraid,” Erjavec was cited as saying, referring to autocratic Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, a close ally of Jansa.

Regarding foreign policy, Erjavec said that his party wants Slovenia to return to the ‘Franco-German train’.

“We want to be in the group of nuclear states and in order to achieve this, we need changes and a different government,” Erjavec added.

As regards DeSUS' two ministers - Minister of Health Tomaz Gantar and Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec - the party has not decided whether to leave the decision on their dismissal to the prime minister.

Gantar was quoted as saying that he will be minister as long as Jansa estimates that he is needed to lead the ministry.

“The situation [with coronavirus] is so serious that the ministry must not be left without someone to continue its work," Gantar said.

He believes that the DeSUS parliamentary group will support the decision of the party to leave the government.

"The orime minister was warned that we will not work in this way and that we get to the point where as a political party will not be able to participate in the government. That's what happened," Gantar was cited as saying.