Slovenian Ruling Coalition Fails to Secure Parliamentary Majority

After Slovenian MPs failed to approve the agenda for a week-long parliamentary session on Monday, the opposition renewed its call for early elections.

"Calls for parliamentary elections will be more frequent and louder," political scientist Alem Maksuti told BIRN.

Maksuti said that the problem is that "the main actor who should decide on it and say 'stop the agony'" - Prime Minister Janez Jansa - will not agree to snap polls.

Speaker Igor Zorcic suspended the session of the 90-seat parliament before it even began, as 42 MPs voted in favour and 42 against the agenda which included a vote on an opposition-sponsored motion to impeach Jansa and on a proposal by the ruling coalition to dismiss Zorcic as speaker.

Jansa described the situation as "totally absurd".

"Speaker Igor Zorcic voted against the agenda of the plenary session he is chairing, and thus prevented a debate on a number of solutions important for the people, as well as the impeachment filed by the opposition," he wrote on Twitter.

The centre-left opposition parties - Marjan Sarec List, LMS, Social Democrats SD, Left and Alenka Bratusek Party, SAB - then filed a request for an emergency session to discuss Jansa's impeachment over alleged constitutional and legal violations.

"What the opposition is trying to do with this proposal is to put pressure on MPs, the public and the media, [to explain] that the best solution for democracy and for Slovenia is snap elections," Maksuti said.

According to Maksuti, there is little chance of Jansa being impeached, but that the ruling coalition could also fail to get Zorcic's removal on the agenda.

A similar situation occurred in March when governing parties failed by one vote to remove Zorcic as speaker...