Slovenia gets new cabinet, two months after elections

Feb 11, 2012, 0:40 GMT

Ljubljana/Belgrade - The Slovenian parliament on Friday approved the new cabinet of Janez Jansa, ending a political turmoil that had lasted for more than two months since elections were held.

'Before us we have a mandate with nothing spectacular in sight, only hard work,' Jansa told the parliament, promising to cut spending by 10 per cent.

'Saving is the only way for us to emerge from the crunch and create room for growth,' he said. 'Otherwise, we will fall into a spiral and find ourselves where a few European countries are today.'

Slovenia has been in a spiral of overspending and borrowing and it was because of cost-cutting reforms that Socialist Borut Pahor's government fell in September, forcing early elections on December 3.

In the meantime, it had its credit rating downgraded by all major auditing agencies.

But Jansa's return to power - he was prime minister from 2004 to 2008 - took time, because he first had to turn an electoral defeat in December 3 polls into a political triumph.

His Democratic Party won 26 out of the 90 seats in parliament, two fewer than the rival Positive Slovenia - but Jansa managed to secure allegiance from four other parties for a governing coalition.

Jansa's alliance includes all parties in parliament except the Positive Slovenia and Pahor's Socialists. The vote in on the cabinet went 50 in favour, 10 against and 30 abstentions.

His cabinet faces the same task and must urgently cut expenditures in order to avert serious financial problems. 'Time is running out,' Jansa admitted.

Passing unpopular measures with such a broad coalition is not the only problem Jansa faces - he has been accused of taking a bribe in Slovenia's 278-million-euro (370 million dollars) purchase of military vehicles from Finland in 2006.

The 12-member cabinet includes Janez Sustersic as finance minister and Karl Erjavec as foreign minister.