Slovene Leader Calls Emergency Meeting Over Coalition’s Fate
Slovenia’s Political Crisis Deepens as Parties Fight Over Budget
(Bloomberg) --
Slovenia’s prime minister called on his coalition partners to decide whether they want to stick together as bickering over the 2020-2021 budget deepened the euro-area nation’s political crisis.
Prime Minister Marjan Sarec’s minority government is three votes short of a parliamentary majority after a leftist party revoked its support and raised the question of whether he’ll finish his four year term.
A first big test will come Thursday, when lawmakers will vote on the budget draft and a bailout law that’s been denounced by the European Central Bank.
The session comes as the five remaining coalition parties, who’re slated to meet Wednesday, remain divided on issues including the size of pensions and money to be allocated to municipalities. Sarec’s tie-up has been in power since last year.
“Not passing budgets for 2020 and 2021 would be a bad sign for Slovenians and international markets,” Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj told lawmakers on Tuesday. Later he answered questions by media, and according to STA suggested he may resign.
“If there is a discrepancy between the budget and the law on budget implementation, we will very likely no longer have the finance minister,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jan Bratanic in Ljubljana at jbratanic@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrea Dudik
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