Slovenia - Election 2004 - National Assembly
After 10 years in the opposition, Janez Jansa became Prime Minister in October 2004. For the first time, power transferred from the long-time center-left ruling coalition headed by the LDS to Jansa and his center-right collation led by the Slovene Democratic Party. Janez Jansa played a critical role from rallying Slovenian forces to face down Yugoslav National Armed forces in 1991 to leading it through its first years as a member of NATO and the EU. Jansa began his political career in the 1980's as a dissident and was at the center of the struggle for democracy. His activities landed him in detention and prison for six months, including a period in solitary confinement. His experiences seemed only to strengthen his resolve, and he helped to found the first opposition political party, the Slovene Democratic Alliance.
In 1990 he was elected to Parliament, and in May of that year he was named Minister of Defense. In 1994 he left government and went into the political opposition. Ten years later his party won a majority in Parliamentary elections and he was named Prime Minister. Since PM Jansa formed his government in December 2004, he did well in meeting many of his political goals including strengthening ties with the United States. His visit to Washington will be the culmination of 18 months of re-aligning the domestic and foreign policy of Slovenia towards a more expansive view of the trans-Atlantic relationship and how Slovenia can, and should, play an active role in NATO and other international fora.
Jansa's coalition was made up of four political parties, one of which represented a very narrow political base of pensioners and, other than Jansa's own Slovene Democratic Party (SDS), none of which enjoyed more than 4% of popular support as reported in recent polls. Nonetheless, since the coalition only held a one-seat majority in the parliament, each vote is important and even the smallest partner has the potential to scuttle important issues if provoked. Jansa blamed this somewhat tenuous political arrangement for some of the difficulties he had on economic reforms.
The government was focusing on "unimportant" issues such as finger pointing over old grievances from World War II and trying to increase the influence of the Catholic Church in the state, while sidestepping the crucial issues of economic reform, privatization, resolving status issues of former Yugoslav residents of Slovenia and settling outstanding disputes with Croatia.
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