Prime Minister Marjan Šarec gathered a team of 16 ministers around him. Five of them were taken from the National Assembly, since they were elected as members of parliament. These are: Zdravko Počivalšek, dr. Miro Cerar, Rudi Medved, Peter Jožef Česnik, and Marko Bandelli. What about the other ministers? They either were not elected or did not run.
The undisputed record holder, at failing the parliamentary elections, is Minister of Defense, Karl Erjavec. Not only did his party achieve half less of the votes achieved four years ago, but out of all the new ministers who ran for the parliamentary elections, Erjavec received by far the least votes, only 394 or less than 6 percent in his constituency. By the way, Jure Ferjan, a candidate for and member of the SDS Party, received 1,790 votes in the same constituency, Tržič.
In Velenje, known as the Red Fortress of the Social Democrats, Andreja Katič, a Social Democrat, current Minister of Justice, and ex Minister of Defense, was also unsuccessful. She received 1,595 votes in the parliamentary elections, while her competitor Suzana Kavaš, of the SDS Party, received 2,108 votes.
Seven ministers are not elected Members of Parliament
Jure Leben, who faked his Master of Arts, became Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning. He was outvoted by SDS MP Alenka Jeraj at the parliamentary elections in the Vič – Rudnik I electoral district of Ljubljana. Leben received 1,422 votes, while Alenka Jeraj received 3,940 votes.
The present ministers who did not get elected into the National Assembly are: Minister of the Interior Boštjan Poklukar (1,449 votes), Alenka Bratušek (1,205 votes), Jernej Pikalo (799 votes), and Aleksandra Pivec (545 votes).
So, seven current ministers, who were not elected by the people as members of parliament, were a good enough choice anyway for Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, to be part of the government team. The current ministers who ran the elections gathered 7,409 votes altogether. While Janez Janša, President of the SDS Party, received a total of 7,020 votes, by himself.
The four remaining ministers are: Minister of Culture Dejan Prešiček, Minister of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Ksenija Klampfer, Health Minister Samo Fakin and Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj. They did not even run for the parliamentary elections. Were they afraid of the will of the people?
