SLOVENIA: Slovenia's parliament rejects Zoran Jankovic as premier amid worries over economy

Record ID: 327686

  • Title: SLOVENIA: Slovenia's parliament rejects Zoran Jankovic as premier amid worries over economy
  • Date: 12th January 2012
  • Summary: LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA (JANUARY 11, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF SLOVENIAN PARLIAMENT BUILDING SLOVENIAN AND EU FLAGS PARLIAMENT SESSION IN PROGRESS, ZOOM IN ONTO PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE, ZORAN JANKOVIC SCREEN READING: AGENDA: CANDIDATE FOR PRIME MINISTER PARLIAMENT SESSION IN PROGRESS PARLIAMENT SPEAKER GREGOR VIRANT JANKOVIC LISTENING AS PARLIAMENT SPEAKER ANNOUNCES RESULT OF VOTE, SAYING: "42 voted for, 1 voted against," MP MELITA ZUPEVC SHAKING HANDS WITH JANKOVIC HEAD OF THE CENTRE-RIGHT SLOVENIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND PRIME MINISTER CANDIDATE, JANEZ JANSA, LISTENING MPs GETTING UP JANKOVIC WALKING OUT INTO MEDIA GAGGLE (SOUNDBITE) (Slovenian) PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE, ZORAN JANKOVIC SAYING: "This is the will of the members of the parliament and I accept it. I think we have done everything in the party . I was pleased with most of the speeches I heard today, they were fair, even those who said they would vote for me, and those who said they would vote against me." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Slovenian) PRIME MINISTER DESIGNATE, ZORAN JANKOVIC SAYING: "If you would like to know whether I am disappointed, I can tell you no, I am not. We have done our best, we stood firmly behind our promises to our voters. I am sorry because our programme was good and Slovenia would speedily recover. I still think that our three slogans: Lots of work, lots of will and hope are the best for Slovenians and that we will be a constructive opposition to whoever becomes the prime minister." JANKOVIC SURROUNDED BY MEDIA
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Slovenia, Slovenia
  • Country: Slovenia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2Q8UU63XBJT2FKET00YPO9FLB
  • Story Text: Slovenia's parliament rejected on Wednesday (January 11) the centre-left former Ljubljana mayor Zoran Jankovic as new prime minister, parliamentary speaker Gregor Virant announced.
    Jankovic, whose Positive Slovenia party gained the most votes at a snap election on December 4, needed the support of at least 46 out of 90 parliamentary members but only managed to gain the support of 42.
    "This is the will of the members of the parliament and I accept it. I think we have done everything in the party . I was pleased with most of the speeches I heard today, they were fair, even those who said they would vote for me, and those who said they would vote against me," Jankovich said immediately after the vote.
    "I am sorry because our programme was good and Slovenia would speedily recover. I still think that our three slogans: Lots of work, lots of will and hope are the best for Slovenians and that we will be a constructive opposition to whoever becomes the prime minister," he added.
    The president and parliament members now have up to 14 days to nominate new candidates for prime minister with election runner-up Janez Jansa, head of the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party, the second strongest party in parliament, being the most likely candidate.
    Slovenia's political crisis started in September when parliament ousted the centre-left government of Prime Minister Borut Pahor over internal coalition squabbles and its inability to enforce reforms that would speed economic growth.
    The export-oriented country was badly hit by the global crisis and its economy shrank by 8 percent in 2009. After a mild recovery in 2010 recent data showed that another recession was possible as the economy contracted by 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011.
    All major credit rating agencies have cut Slovenia's ratings since September amid the political crisis, lack of reforms and the deepening of the euro zone debt crisis, and have put it on a negative watch.
    One agency, Fitch, told Reuters last week that Slovenia needed to form a new government urgently and come up with a plan to narrow its budget deficit to maximise its chance of averting another rate cut.
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