Slovenia’s President Borut Pahor will hold a second round of talks with political parties represented in the new parliament on July 6 in an attempt to form a new government. 

The first round of talks after the June 3 elections were unsuccessful. Two rival groups are trying to form a government — one led by the largest party in the new parliament, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS); the other a mixed bag of small parties led by runner-up Marjan Sarec. So far, however, neither have enough MPs to form a majority in the 90-seat parliament.

On June 7, Pahor gave a mandate to form a new government to Janez Jansa, whose SDS took the largest share of the vote — 25% — in the June 3 elections, but this is not enough to form a government alone. Like in the previous few election cycles, Jansa is struggling to form a coalition. 

He can count only on support from the conservative New Slovenia (NSi) party and the far-right Slovenian National Party (SNS). Together with NSi, the SDS could put together 32 MPs, which is not sufficient to form a government. Even with the SNS’s four, this would be short of a majority. 

Second ranked in the June 3 elections was the party led and established by Sarec, runner-up in the recent presidential elections as well, that gained 12.66% of the vote. Sarec says he will not form a government with Jansa, and instead has put together a motley crew of five small allies. 

According to RTV SLO, the party presidents holding coalition talks with Sarec are already working on a coalition agreement, but with only a combined 43 seats, they also don’t have a majority though they are reportedly optimistic about their ability to secure one. 

Among them are the Social Democrats 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).

Sarec says that on the table is the division of ministries, but the presidents of the five parties are secretive about which ministries each party would like to have, RTV SLO reported. 

Sarec needs the support of another party; since he is not willing to collaborate with the SDS or the Slovenian National Party (SNS), he needs a vote from the NSi or Left Party (Levica).