No majority
January 11, 2012
The man nominated to become Slovenia's next prime minister failed to secure a parliamentary majority on Wednesday, throwing the country into political uncertainty after snap elections last month.
Ljubljana mayor Zoran Jankovic's center-left party Positive Slovenia won the largest share of votes in the December 4 poll, taking 28 seats in the 90-seat parliament. But coalition talks resulted in only 42 votes in favor of him as prime minister, with only 47 votes cast after several parties abstained.
"This was the will of the MPs and I accept it. My party and I did all that was needed," said Jankovic. "I believe those that boycotted today's voting will have problems explaining this to those citizens that gave them their vote."
The center-right Slovenian Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, which had been expected to win the elections but received only 26 seats in parliament, proposed forming a center-right coalition. However such a coalition seemed unlikely, with the best-case scenario reaching 44 votes - two short of the necessary majority.
President Danilo Turk, a parliamentary party or a group of 10 lawmakers may now nominate a new candidate to form a government, and parliament has 14 days to vote. If that vote fails, the president can dissolve parliament and call new early elections.
The kingmakers may turn out to be the two candidates elected by the Hungarian and Italian ethnic minorities, although both have said they do not want the responsibility of forming a government.
The general elections last month were triggered by the collapse of Prime Minister Borut Pahor's government after he failed to push through an austerity package.
Slovenia became the first former Yugoslav republic to enter the European Union in 2004, and it adopted the euro in 2007. Its credit rating was downgraded on December 23 amid rising debt and stress on the country's banks.
Author: Andrew Bowen (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton