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Slovenia's Left Party to Back, Not Join, Sarec's Coalition

Slovenia's Left Party Vows to Back, Not Join, Sarec's Coalition

(Bloomberg) -- Slovenia’s Left party vowed to support but not join a five-party ruling coalition led by Marjan Sarec, the runner-up in inconclusive June elections, STA newswire reported.

The Left declined Sarec’s offer of participating in the ruling grouping, which leaves the comedian-turned-mayor at the helm of a minority administration cobbled together from a disparate array of centrist and leftist political parties. Still, with the Left’s tacit support, the coalition can deny power to Janez Jansa, who won the most votes but was shunned by other parties who objected to his populist, anti-immigrant election campaign.

Sarec said Wednesday he’ll lead a minority government if the Left provides “sustainable cooperation,” according to STA.

He and his potential partners have until Aug. 10 to propose a governing tie-up, after a first 30-day mandate expired with no coalition agreement. Another failure will push the former Yugoslav republic of 2 million people closer to snap elections

The next government will have two main tasks. It must address the sale of state owned lender Nova Ljubljanska Banka d.d. after the previous government missed an end-2017 deadline imposed as part of a 2013 financial-sector bailout. It must also choose a new head of the central bank after its former chief, Bostjan Jazbec, left the post. The National Bank of Slovenia’s governor also sits on the European Central Bank’s Governing Council.

To contact the reporter on this story: Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey

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