Slovenia's Jansa completes government coalition

Jan 25, 2012, 10:53 GMT

Ljubljana/Belgrade - Slovenia's former conservative premier Janez Jansa appeared set to return to power after the final ally he needed for a government coalition on Tuesday said it would join him.

'We will join the coalition ... this coalition for a way out of the crisis,' the head of the pensioners party DeSUS said after a leadership meeting.

DeSUS completes a five-party alliance for 50 out of the 90 seats in the parliament that were claimed in December 3 snap elections.

The outcome is the latest turbulent twist on the Slovenian political scene, as Jansa seems to have wrought victory from what was described as electoral defeat.

His Democratic Party came in second, with 26 seats and two less than the brand new Positive Slovenia, headed by the popular Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic.

President Danilo Turk had designated Jankovic to put together the government coalition, but he failed to secure a majority in the legislature.

Only the outgoing Prime Minister Borut Pahor's Socialists, with their 10 seats, supported his efforts, but that was far short of the minimum 46-seat majority needed to govern.

Early elections were called after Pahor's government fell over the issue of austerity measures that Slovenia will have to implement in order to avert a financial crisis.

His failure leaves the upcoming government with a daunting task of shedding 1 billion dollars in expenditures, for instance through pension system reforms, in order to reduce spending to sustainable levels and clear the risk of a financial crisis.

Local observers warned that the election outcome, which produced no clear-cut winners, weakens the reformist potential of the new cabinet through the political haggling connected to a governing coalition.