Left leadership gets vote of confidence, mandate for coalition talks

Ljubljana – The council of the Left on Friday endorsed the party’s executive committee, headed by coordinator Luka Mesec, after the committee put their mandate for a vote of confidence. The party leadership has been given the mandate for talks with the Freedom Movement to enter a coalition headed by Robert Golob.

The party will next week formally enter negotiations to form a government coalition with the Freedom Movement and Social Democrats (SD), the Left confirmed for the STA.

Mesec and Golob, the head of election-winning party, had an informal conversation on Monday, but the executive committee first wanted to check whether they still enjoyed the trust of the party membership.

The decision to seek a vote of confidence came after the party barely made it to parliament in Sunday’s general election, winning five MP seats, compared to nine in the 2018 election.

After the election, the party held a debate on what has been done right, and what had been done wrong, and how to proceed, the party said in a press release after the leadership was endorsed.

According to the party, the main message in the campaign ahead of the election was that a vote for the Left ensured that Slovenia would get a government that would work for the benefit of the people.

“This message not coming across is seen as our main failure,” the party said, adding that the executive committee had nevertheless been endorsed and given the mandate to enter coalition talks.

The party council has concluded that “it is not enough to achieve change for people, but that these must be achieved together with them.” To this end, strategic and organisational changes will follow, the party said.

Mesec told the press on Saturday he would meet the leaders of the potential coalition partners, the Freedom Movement and the SD, on Tuesday.

He said he expected “concrete steps towards a new government”, while declining to answer the question whether he enjoyed the support from all five elected MPs of the Left.

Mesec would not reveal the potential breakdown of government departments among the three parties, while announcing concrete proposals for Tuesday.

The post Left leadership gets vote of confidence, mandate for coalition talks appeared first on Slovenia Times.