PERSPECTIVE Realignment of the party system – Slovenia before the elections ALEŠ MAVER AND UROŠ URBAS November 2011 The coalition government under Social Democrat Prime Minister Borut Pahor lost the support it needed in Parlia­ment and early elections had to be called for 4 Decem­ber, one year before completing its term of office. What are the reasons for this development? Which parties are now seeking votes in the»political marketplace«? What coalitions are possible after 4 December? And what chal­lenges will the new government face? Why did the government of Prime Minister Borut Pahor fail? Although the governing coalition was homogeneously left-wing, it could not work together and registered no significant achievements. The next government will thus be compelled to achieve something. Due to the deterio­rating economic situation – for 2012 1 per cent GDP growth, 1.3 per cent inflation, 8.4 per cent unemploy ­ment and a 5.3 per cent budget deficit are predicted – the goals will be economic. The biggest success of the current government was the referendum on the border dispute with Croatia. In June 2010, citizens narrowly voted for the government pro­posal to solve the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia with the help of the International Court. But without other clear objectives and centred on the personality of the prime minister, the government could only fail. Already at the beginning of its term it got its diagnosis of the crisis completely wrong: it expected the crisis to be over in a year or two and indeed the government was sure that demand, exports and eco ­nomic growth would return to pre-crisis levels. The government’s main policy was to increase financial aid for the unemployed and to convince companies not to make people redundant. Nevertheless, the unemploy ­ment rate increased by 75 per cent to 107,000 over three years. This policy was financed by loans of 8 billion eu ­ros, which doubled the public deficit. However, Prime Minister Pahor overestimated his popu­larity in a situation in which everybody hoped that the economic crisis would soon be over. The governing par ­ties had completely different priorities: they were seek­ing economic rents; they could not resist the pressure of lobbies and made concessions; and they were too preoc­cupied with scandals and other affairs emerging from the ranks of the governing coalition. Electoral history and development of the party system Since the re-introduction of the multi-party system Slo­venia has held general elections in 1990, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. The imminent elections will be the first early elections ever held in the country. They had to be called because the four-party centre­left government was first reduced to a minority govern ­ment, after the Democratic Pensioners Party DESUS and the Zares party(For real, new politics) left it in 2011 and after losing a vote of confidence in Septem ­ber 2011. Only 36 members of parliament – 28 from the social democratic SD, five from the liberal demo ­cratic LDS and three former Zares and DESUS members – voted for, 51 against(SDS, Zares, SLS, SNS, DESUS and minorities). The failure of Pahor’s cabinet, com ­bined with a general perception that the parties of the left were in severe crisis, triggered tectonic changes in this part of the political spectrum. Several new political initiatives have been launched since September 2011.