Pahor’s Social Democrats Defeat Janša

According to incomplete official results, the opposition Social Democrats (SD) are on track to defeat the ruling conservative Slovenian Democratic Party in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Slovenia.

According to data published on its website by the State Election Commission, after 80 percent of the votes have been counted, Borut Pahor’s Social Democrats would have 29 parliamentary seats in the new parliament with 30 percent of the votes, while Prime Minister Janez Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party would have 29 seats with 29.6 percent of the votes. However, the coalition partners of the SD achieved better results than those of the SDS. Due to the exit from parliament of Janša’s current coalition partner, the Nova Slovenija (NSI) party led by Andrej Bajuk, it is more likely that Pahor will be appointed as the mandate holder and form a government that would include the Zares party, Gregor Golobič, and the Liberal Democrats (LDS), Katarina Kresal, as well as the Democratic Party of Pensioners (DESUS) led by the Minister of Defense in Janša’s current government, Karl Erjavec.

Such a coalition with over 50 representatives would have a fairly stable majority in the parliament of 90 seats, where the ruling coalition must have a majority. The Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Jankovič, who called on voters during the election campaign not to vote for the current government, stated this evening that DESUS “belongs to the left coalition” as it is a socially oriented party. Erjavec said on Sunday evening at the press center in Ljubljana that he would be willing to enter into a coalition of three left-center parties, but that he had not yet been contacted about this by the president of the Social Democrats, Borut Pahor, as a possible mandate holder. For entering the government, Erjavec said, his party would require the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, as well as a prominent position in the new parliament. In addition, he said, DESUS’s demand for the new government would be an increase in minimum pensions “by at least ten percent.” (Hina)