Meet Slovenia’s new prime minister. Marjan Sarec, a comedian-turned-politician, was actually the election runner-up in the June ballot. But he was backed to 55 of the country’s 90 lawmakers last week.
Now it’s up to Sarec to form a minority government that will depend on the backing of the leftist Levica party.
As reported by Bloomberg, Sarec’s confirmation prevents Janez Jansa, an ally of euroskeptic Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban, from returning to power. Jansa, who had waged an anti-refugee campaign, failed to woo other parties to join him in forming a government.
“The EU is at a crossroads,” Sarec told parliament before the vote. “Slovenia must strive to remain in the group of so-called core countries.”
Sarec, 40, has also pledged to sweep Slovenia’s elite out of state institutions, cut bureaucracy and make changes in the judicial and electoral systems. But his pre-election rhetoric may be reined in by a motley collection of parties with a disparate array of stances on policy issues.
In a separate report, Euronews noted that Sarec is expected to propose a minority government made up of five centre-left parties, was chosen by a 55-31 vote in parliament.
“We are a new party, [a] new generation in politics that is not burdened with the past,” Sarec told NBC News. “We are here to work.”
But analysts have predicted that Sarec’s minority government could be unstable – and probably would not last long.
