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Slovenia - Political Parties

Slovenia remains a county where politics is personal; Slovenes will vote for the person, not the party. Although the two principal figures in Slovenian politics are supposedly above party politics, former President Kucan and President Drnovsek remained very significant power brokers. Slovenian voters generally view the center-left parties as successors -- albeit once or twice removed -- to the old League of Communists of Slovenia, while the center-right is seen as closely associated with the Catholic Church. True ideology plays a relatively minor role in Slovenian politics.

In 1987, a group of Slovenian intellectuals that opposed the Communists gathered around the periodical Nova Revija and advocated abandoning the Communist system and introducing a pluralistic democratic system in an independent Slovenian state. This movement gathered steam and contributed to the creation of the political coalition DEMOS in November 1989. In the first democratic elections in April 1990, DEMOS defeated the Communist successor party and formed the first Slovenian democratic government with Lojze Peterle as PM, Dimitrij Rupel as FoMin, and Janez Jansa as DefMin.

On 12 May 1988, the Slovene Farmers’ Alliance (SKZ) was established in Ljubljana, based on the Slovene Association of Cooperatives, and proclaiming itself a professional organisation. On 11 January 1989, the Slovene Democratic Alliance (SDZ), primarily a party of people working in culture and the arts, was established. On 16 February 1989, the Social Democrat Alliance of Slovenia was established, emerging from an independent union movement. In December 1987, France Tomšic founded the first independent union following a strike of Litostroj workers. The Christian social movement around the 2000 magazine grew in strength, and on 10 March, some of its followers disaffiliated from it and established their own party, the Slovene Christian Democrats. On 11 June, the Greens of Slovenia was founded, and later some other smaller alliances or parties.

Because of the constitution, the first alliances operated within the framework of the Socialist Alliance of Working People, but the passage of new election legislation in December 1989 allowed also for independent registrations. The former socio-political organisations were also transformed into parties. The League of Communists of Slovenia (ZKS), which won the majority of votes of any party in the elections, became the Party of Democratic Renewal (later the Social Democratic Party); the League of Socialist Youth of Slovenia became the Liberal Party, and the Socialist Alliance of the Working People became the Socialist Party.

Slovenian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party of Slovenia, Slovenian Christian Democrats, Liberal Party, the Greens of Slovenia and the Slovenian Farmers’ Association (later Slovenian People’s Party) create DEMOS – Democratic Opposition of Slovenia as a pre-election coalition. Before the elections, the Slovenian Craftsmen's Party and the Grey Panthers (the organization of pensioners) join DEMOS as well.

The first democratic multiparty elections of 160 delegates to the Socio-political Chamber and the Chamber of Communes. Parallel to the general elections, presidential elections and elections of the Slovenia’s Presidency members are held. Ciril Zlobec, Matjaž Kmecl, Dušan Plut, and Ivan Oman were elected members of the Presidency. The Demos coalition wins the general elections with 54 per cent of the vote (Christian Democrats led by Lojze Peterle win the majority of the vote in the coalition – 13 %, thus gaining the right to become a formateur). Results: Party of Democratic Reform – 17,3 %, Liberal Party - 14,5%, Social Democratic Union of Slovenia - 7,4%, Slovenian Christian Democrats - 13,0%, the Slovenian Craftsmen's Party - 3,5%, Socialist Union of Slovenia - 5,4%, the Greens of Slovenia - 8,8%, Slovenian Democratic Union - 9,5%, Slovenian Farmers’ Association - 12,6%.

Ideology plays a relatively minor role in elections; personality is far more important than politics in a country where there are probably no more than three degrees of separation between any randomly-selected pair of citizens. In terms of size, Slovenia's population resembles West Virginia or New Mexico, but the population is far more homogeneous, making the elections here more akin to those of a large county in the US. Inflation, taxes and economic crime - "the fight against tycoons" -- seem to be the major issues. The latter is a popular theme, with every political party wanting to prosecute the other parties' tycoons.

An upheaval on the right in 2000 resulted in the fracturing of the leading parties - Slovene People's Party (SLS) and Slovene Christian Democrats (SKD) - which, after uniting briefly disintegrated rapidly. A much weaker SLS and an entirely new and much less influential New Slovenia (NSi) emerged and played only minor roles in ensuing national governments. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Janez Jansa's Slovene Democrats (SDS) continued to strengthen and in 2004 won a majority in the parliament, bringing the center right to full power for the first time since independence. The Slovene Democratic Party (SDS) led the governing coalition after getting 29 percent of the vote in the 2004 elections. The other coalition parties are New Slovenia (NSi), Slovene People's Party (SLS), and Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS). Supporters of SDS are mainly higher and middle educated people from towns and rural areas. Janez Jansa, with his strong personality and determination, is the main attraction for SDS supporters. Key support comes from areas south of Ljubljana: Grosuplje (Jansa's hometown), Ribnica, and Kocevje.

The Social Democratic [SD] was a member of ruling coalition from 1992 to 1996. In January 1996, it left the coalition in a dispute over the government's positions on pensioners and social policy. SD got 10 percent of the 2004 vote and became part of the opposition. In January 2007, after the collapse of the government-created party Liberal Democratic Party of Slovenia (LDS), four prominent members of LDS moved to SD, which thus became the strongest opposition party. Supporters of SD are left-leaning and have a generally positive view of Yugoslav socialism. One of their historical touchstones remains "the defeat of facism.Its strongest voter support comes from regions that were occupied by the Italians during WWII (the Primorska region). An important magnet for the voters is SD party president Borut Pahor, whose somewhat lackluster motto is "the policy of compromise."

The Liberal Democrats of Slovenia (LDS) became the leading opposition party after being defeated by SDS in 2004. Prior to 2004, LDS ruled Slovenia for 12 years. In 1992, after the dissolution of DEMOS, the democratic coalition that defeated the Communists in Slovenia's first free elections in 1990, LDS emerged as Slovenia's strongest political party. That same year, LDS received the relative majority in national elections and formed its first coalition government. LDS won enough votes to form governments in 1996 and 2000. In May of 2000, LDS lost control of government in a vote of no-confidence, but returned to power six months later in special elections when it received an unprecedented 36% of the vote.

During the 10 years from 1992-2002, Janez Drnovsek led the LDS and the GOS as prime minister. Fatigued by years of intra-coalition negotiations and a serious bout with kidney cancer [he died 27 February 2008, aged 57], Drnovsek decided to run for President (a much less demanding position) in 2002. He won Presidential elections in November 2002 and chose Anton Rop as his successor both as president of the party and as prime minister. With Rop in the lead, a pronounced shift to the left occurred. Rop seemed to shrug off the mantle Drnovsek had passed to him and determined to chart an independent (of the old-line LDS) course for the Government. Relying primarily on his own close circle of advisors, Rop created what would become an unbridgeable gap between himself and the traditional LDS base of voters and political supporters.

Rop and his party did not heed the signs when the LDS and the left essentially lost the elections for European Parliament in June 2004. The LDS treated this result as a one-off event rather than a red flag signaling a loss of voter support. Even notoriously pro-LDS polls were indicating an LDS drop in popularity. Yet, Rop and the LDS made little extra effort to rally support for the October 2004 elections.

In early 2007, the majority of its deputies left the party (12 out of 23 total) for other parties; four of them joined SD, seven established Zares, and one became an independent deputy. In June 2007 the Party elected new leadership and began a rebuilding process. The number of LDS supporters has decreased significantly since the last election. Supporters are highly educated voters, entrepreneurs and managers of some successful companies in Slovenia.

Since it lost elections in 2004, LDS, the leading political party for 12 years [1992-2004], never recovered its footing, and it was only a matter of time before it began to collapse. LDS experienced a significant loss of public support with a 2007 poll showing only about eight percent support [in most of 2004 it still enjoyed more than 20 percent approval]. LDS attempted to reorganize, but to little avail. It held a Congress in October 2005, and elected Jelko Kacin as the new party president, replacing former Prime Minister Anton Rop whose term had ended. Many members of the party disagreed with Kacin's leadership, and the first major cracks in party unity appeared. The first prominent member of LDS to leave was Janez Drnovsek who froze his membership in 2002 when he became President of the Republic. In 2006 he relinquished his membership altogether. Gregor Golobic, a powerful and longtime LDS party leader with close ties to Drnovsek, followed closely behind.

Za Res (For Real) was formed after the dismal showing of the Liberal Democracy Party (LDS) in local elections in fall 2006 and the continued infighting and ineffective leadership of the party. Matej Lahovnik, former Minister of Economy and four other LDS members of parliament left the party. Rather than leave politics altogether, he and his colleagues decided in February 2007 to form a new political movement. Lahovnik is one of the few young, dynamic politicians on the Slovenian political scene. He was a teenager at the time of independence, and he is among the first to arrive in politics who was neither involved in the independence movement in the '80s and '90's nor has parents who can remember the injustices of World War II. The party says it wants to create a new political platform promoting anodyne values such as openness, responsiveness, persistence, patience, and self discipline. In 2008 polling, Zares placed a distant third behind SDS and SD, with between 9 and 12 percent of the vote. Supporters of Zares are not yet known since this will be the first election for the new party. Since the party leans Left, it will most likely steal votes from SD and LDS.

New Slovenia (NSi) was a member of the 2007 ruling coalition and close to SDS. It is a right-oriented party with a strong Christian component and support of the Catholic Church; it is the Slovenian equivalent of the traditional European Christian Democratic party. In 2004, NSi got 9 percent of voters' support. Although it is not performing well in polls in 2008, NSi's voters were likely to show up at the voting booth in enough numbers to allow NSi to cross the 4 percent threshold. NSi has a strong support among practicing Catholics --the Catholic Church openly supports NSi -- and thus more support in rural areas of Slovenia. In the September 2008 elections, Nova Slovenija (NSi), led by finance minister Andrej Bajuk and part of Jansa's coalition, did not receive enough votes to cross the 4 percent threshold required for inclusion in the parliament. After early results came in, an NSi politico lamented the lack of any Christian Democrat representation in parliament, saying that "the Communists" are back in power. Bajuk has announced that he would no longer lead NSi, and that party leaders would get together to determine the direction of the party now that it is out of parliament.

The Slovene People's Party (SLS) originates in the Farmers Union that was first renamed into the Slovene Farmers Union and later the Slovene People's Party. It received 6.8 percent of the vote in the 2004 elections and joined forces with the Slovene Youth Party (SMS) in a fight to make it over the threshold in 2008. Supporters of SLS are mainly people with secondary education from rural parts of Slovenia who also support the Catholic Church. SLS has a strong base of voters in farmers, but with its new president and a joint list with SMS, it also counts on some voters among younger generation.

The Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) was established in the early nineties. In 2004 they barely crossed the threshold with 4.04 percent of voters' support and joined the ruling coalition. As a "pensioners' party," DeSUS is considered more center-left and was often critical of PM Jansa's government. Supporters of DeSUS are mainly middle class.

The Slovene National Party (SNS) is a barely-defined party that had been surprisingly successful in all parliamentarian election since independence. In 2004, SNS received 6.27 percent of voters' support. Their vote is often difficult to predict because supporters are sometimes reluctant to associate themselves publicly with the party's nationalist platform. The Slovenian National Party is the sole political party outside the centrist mainstream that consistently employs nationalistic rhetoric. The SNS espouses a platform of "nationalist populism" that combines nationalism, intolerance towards minorities, and populist demagoguery. The SNS campaigned in the October 2004 parliamentary elections against equal rights for Roma and homosexuals by arguing that these constituted "special rights."

SNS member and Deputy President of the National Assembly Saso Pece has famously pronounced that he would never want "to have coffee with a black man or a homosexual." The SNS has also taken a tough stance on Slovenia's relations with neighboring Croatia, Austria and Italy. SNS leader Zmago Jelincic regularly accuses Slovenia's neighbors of being "out to get" the Slovenian nation. Nevertheless, the SNS is largely a fringe party, which garnered only 6.3 percent of the vote in the 2004 elections. Supporters of SNS are younger people, nationalists and disaffected supporters of the larger parties. They are a party to watch, and perhaps to watch out for.

A supposedly new political party was created merely five weeks before the July 2014 elections. This leftist party was without a reliable program and without names with the exception of its leader, Mr. Miro Cerar, son of a former State Prosecutor General. The party was named after him: A Party of Miro Cerar, SMC. Despite huge media and financial backing for SMC from the deep state, it was clear that SDS would, with its good pro-European program and skilled team for the government, very likely repeat a victory from EU elections. The party of Miro Cerar (SMC) shot to the top of opinion polls among voters looking for someone new and untarnished by the corruption scandals that had dogged the mainstream parties. The SMC ghost party won the elections. SDS came second and the leading governmental party of Mrs. Bratušek was totally defeated. A turnout was historically low for Slovenia; merely 51% of voters come to vote. Success for Cerar, whose gymnast father was one of Slovenia's most famous sportsmen, is punishment by voters for the traditional parties, tarnished by corruption scandals and years of economic turmoil in the ex-Yugoslav republic.