New parties sprouting up ahead of election
Ljubljana, 5 December - It has become somewhat of a tradition in Slovenia for new parties to sprout up ahead of elections: with the general election coming up next year, 2017 was no exception.
Stara Loka
The founding congress of the conservative party Voice of Families and Children.
Photo: Anže Malovrh/STA
File photo
After its successful campaign against marriage equality in late 2015, Children Are at Stake, the Slovenian version of the US Tea Party movement, founded a party called the Voice for Children and Families - for Children, on 25 March, confirming Aleš Primc as leader. In its first test at the polls, the party's septuagenarian candidate Angelca Likovič finished last among the nine candidates in the 22 October presidential election with 0.58% of the vote.
Marjan Šarec, the comedian turned mayor who won 47% of the vote in the run-off against incumbent Borut Pahor, will seek to enter parliament with his local party in the 2018 election, while MP Bojan Dobovšek, a founding member of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) who quit soon after the party took up the reins of government in 2014, launched a new party called Good State on 18 November. Its stated goal being to fight corruption and complete the transition to a market economy, the party brings together centrist figures from the left and right. Several other parties are rumoured to be in the making, but the efforts are yet to come to fruition.