By: Gašper Blažič
The story of Slovenian democracy and parliamentarism is also the story of “instant” parties with “new faces”. Two of them had already disappeared in the fall of 2022 because they officially merged with the Gibanje Svoboda party – these are the Alenka Bratušek Party and the Marjan Šarec List.
However, this is not all, as several other parties that have so far been “on life support” are also expected to follow suit soon. Several political parties will soon be removed from the register of political parties, as indicated in notices in the Official Gazette. Among them are several parties that once played a significant role in shaping Slovenian politics, including Gregor Golobič’s Zares, Gregor Virant’s Civic List, and Zoran Janković’s Positive Slovenia.
How a Party “Self-Deregisters”
According to the Law on Political Parties, there are several ways for a political party to be removed from the register of political parties. A party can request deregistration itself. The party’s representative must notify the registration authority, which is the Ministry of the Interior, within 30 days after the decision to dissolve the party has been made. The application for deregistration must include the party’s decision to dissolve and a report on the settlement of its property rights upon dissolution.
The registration authority can also initiate the process of removing a party from the register if it determines that the party was registered based on false information or if it finds that the party has not participated in at least one of the elections to the National Assembly, local community bodies, or the European Parliament twice in a row. The registration authority can also remove a party from the register if the Constitutional Court decides so or if a court completely annuls the decision to register the party, as stipulated by law.
Liquidated party projects of Virant, Golobič, and Šoltes
At the beginning of the month, it was announced in the Official Gazette that three parties would be removed from the register of political parties: Zares, Civic List (DL), and Verjamem. As is known, the latter was founded by Igor Šoltes, Kardelj’s grandson, who has since joined SD, although he successfully ran for the European elections with the Verjamem list.
The establishment of Zares followed the 2004 parliamentary elections, after which the previously ruling LDS found itself in opposition for the first time. Internal turmoil and conflicts followed, leading to the departure of many members and a split in the party. A group of former members founded the new party Zares in October 2007, having previously formed an association of the same name and established a parliamentary group. In the following year’s parliamentary elections, Golobič’s “orange” party won nine parliamentary seats. With four ministers, Zares was the third-strongest party in Borut Pahor’s government. However, in the 2011 early parliamentary elections, it received only slightly more than half a percent of the vote, and in the 2014 parliamentary elections, the party did not participate. A year later, Zares dissolved itself at an extraordinary convention.
Meanwhile, the Civic List of Gregor Virant was established before the 2011 parliamentary elections, where it garnered 8.37% of the vote and secured eight seats in the National Assembly. After the elections, the party initially enabled the formation of the second government under the leadership of SDS President Janez Janša, but after a damaging report from the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC), it was the first to withdraw support and leave the coalition. The party later participated in Alenka Bratušek’s government, but in the 2014 parliamentary elections, it failed to gain entry to the National Assembly. Even before that, after the party’s poor performance in the European elections, its then-president and co-founder Gregor Virant resigned, and he was succeeded by Bojan Starman.
Meanwhile, the party Verjamem never managed to break into the Slovenian parliament. It was founded before the 2014 parliamentary elections, with Igor Šoltes as its president. In the same year, he was much more successful in the European elections with the similarly named association. At that time, his list received 10.33% of the vote, and Šoltes became a member of the European Parliament.
Janković’s party to the political garbage heap as well
Last Friday, it was announced that three more parties would be removed from the register of political parties: Positive Slovenia, the Voice of the People Party, and the Social Party of Serbs of Slovenia (SSSS). It is interesting to note that the same name, Voice of the People, is also used by an initiative led by leftist activist Jaša Jenull and his colleagues. The former Voice of the People party was registered by former professor Gojko Stanič.
Among these, Positive Slovenia is the most well-known. It was with this party that Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković entered national politics at the end of 2011. The party won the 2011 parliamentary elections with 28.51% of the vote. It originally stemmed from the List of Zoran Janković in the Ljubljana City Council, and its expansion followed a “procession” to the town hall, where a group of “notable Slovenes” asked Janković to engage at the national level. Among the members of this delegation were Milan Kučan and the now-deceased France Bučar.
Janković’s attempt to form a government coalition failed, so the party spent part of its term in opposition. After the fall of the second Janša government, Alenka Bratušek took over the helm of Positive Slovenia and the government. However, she resigned as prime minister after being defeated by Janković in the race for the party’s presidency. The party split, and in 2014, the Alliance of Alenka Bratušek was established, which was later renamed the Alliance of Social-Liberal Democrats and then the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB). Meanwhile, Positive Slovenia fell short of the parliamentary threshold with just under three percent of the vote in the 2014 elections and did not participate in the subsequent parliamentary elections.
All the mentioned parties now have the option, in accordance with the law, to initiate an administrative dispute. If they do not do so, they will be permanently removed from the register of political parties. Currently, 88 political parties are listed in the register, the oldest of which is Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti’s SNS, established in 1991. According to the latest data, the youngest is the SOLUTION – Pensioners’ Party of Velenje, established in March this year.
For now, the LDS remains in the party register, although the fate of the Homeland League, which dissolved itself in March last year, remains unclear. Incidentally, Janković’s list in the Ljubljana City Council continues to operate without interruption.
Whether the Gibanje Svoboda will follow these parties to the garbage heap in a few years remains to be seen.