Page 14 - bne_newspaper_June_08_2018

Southeast Europe
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
Political unknown who became presidential runner-up is now Slovenia's kingmaker
bne IntelliNews
The political party led and established by Mar- jan Sarec, runner-up in the recent presidential elections, will play a key role in forming the next Slovenian government after gaining 12.66% of the vote in the June 3 parliamentary elections.
The main opposition party in the country, the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) had the largest number of votes, 24.96%, according to the data published by the Slovenian Election Commission at 23:15 on June 3. The SDS lacks enough votes to form a government alone, putting Sarec in kingmaker position. While Sarec has said he does not plan to enter a coalition with the SDS, a tie up between the SDS and List of Marjan Sarec (LMS) is still seen as a likely outcome by analysts.
Speaking after the vote, SDS leader Janez Jansa thanked voters but acknowledged that, “The path that lies before us is steep and full of obstacles”.
“If the SDS leads the government, we will run it fairly and for the benefit of all citizens and citi- zens,” he added, according to a party statement.
The LMS took second place in the general elec- tion, followed by the Social Democrats led by outgoing Minister of Agriculture Dejan Zidan, with support of 9.92%.
Six other parties will also take seats in the Slovenian parliament. Among them are outgoing Prime Minister Miro Cerar’s Party of Modern Centre (SMC) with 9.75%, Left Party (Levica) with
Sarec's campaign bus on the road in Styria ahead of Slovenia's June 3 general election.
9.29% as well as New Slovenia (NSi) on 7.13%. In total, 88 of the seats in the Slovenian parliament will be split between members of nine parties, which is two more than in the previous four years. The remaining two seats are designated for representatives of the Italian and Hungarian minorities.
After the party’s strong performance, the LMS’ initial statement posted on Facebook was simply: “Thank you, Slovenia!”
Later, the party expanded on its plans: "Congratu- lations to the winner and much success in draw- ing up the government. And No, I repeat, we are not going into coalition with the SDS. Summer will be twice as hot."
“As things look now, there is no government with- out Sarec even though he didn’t gain a majority,” Miran Videtic, director at VI-PU, a management consulting company based in Kamnik, the small town where Sarec is currently mayor, told bne IntelliNews.
“Even though it is hard to imagine him in any coalition other than the one with the SDS, his first statement tonight was that he is not going in a coalition with Janez Jansa. It is not easy to take it that seriously and everyone here seems to wonder if he claims that in order to increase his price and get better negotiation position for upcoming talks with Jansa or if he actually thinks that.”