(ANSAmed) - LJUBLJANA, DECEMBER 2 - Slovenia is getting ready to
head to the polls on Sunday in the first early parliamentary
elections since the country's independence in 1991. There is
serious concern for the country's financial stability, another
victim of the debt crisis, as well as uncertainty surrounding
future austerity policies that will need to be adopted by the
new government. Polls suggest that the centre-right is
currently out in front.
The latest surveys suggest that the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) is likely to come out on top. The party is led by 53-year old Janez Jansa, who was Prime Minister of the country from 2004 to 2008, and who polls suggest would earn 35% of votes. Confidencein the outgoing Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Borut Pahor, seeped away in September after his proposal to reform pensions - with an increase in the pensionable age from 63 to 65 - was rejected in a popular referendum, and the subsequent split of the four-party centre-left coalition over disagreements on how to stabilise public finances. Pahor's centre-left Social Democrats (DS) are languishing in third place in surveys, with only 10.6% of voter preferences, compared to the 30.45% figure gleaned in the 2008 elections. Pahor is replaced as the leader of the left by Zoran Jankovic, the mayor of Ljubljana since 2006, who is standing as an independent candidate but is close to the progressive liberals, whose party Positive Slovenia (PS), which was formed only a few weeks ago, has reached 24% in the polls.
"In the first hundred days, we will adopt measures to stop the spiralling pessimism and the lack of confidence and of financial means," said Jansa, whose political opponents recognise his "ability to act in extraordinary situations". Together with serious cuts to public spending, privatisations and the rise in the pensionable age, all of which are criteria needed to stay in line with Maastricht criteria in the next two years, Jansa has also promised "the preservation of quality of life and 40,000 new jobs".
Yet if he is able to restore the confidence of voters and to form a government coalition, which is likely to be with the municipal electoral list of his former Public Administration Minister, the centrist Gregor Virant, who could earn as much as 6% of the vote, and other conservative parties, Jansa will find himself in a very different economic situation to that in which he came to power in 2004. At the time, Slovenia was recording growth figures of up to 6%, with unemployment at 5%.
Today, though, the economic crisis is having a serious impact on the Slovenian economy, which is orientated mainly towards the export of industrial products to eurozone and Balkans countries, where demand has been falling constantly since 2008. After the dramatic 7.8% fall of 2009, GDP is almost at a standstill, with growth for 2011 not due to exceed 1%. The closure of a number of industrial plants saw unemployment rise to 11.5% in September, while public debt is now 45.5% of GDP (against 23% in 2007). Following the decision by ratings agencies to downgrade Slovenian debt, interest rates on Slovenian government bonds rocketed to more than 7% in mid-November, the highest level since Ljubljana joined the Eurozone in 2007. The situation is considered to be unsustainable in the medium-term. (ANSAmed).
The latest surveys suggest that the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) is likely to come out on top. The party is led by 53-year old Janez Jansa, who was Prime Minister of the country from 2004 to 2008, and who polls suggest would earn 35% of votes. Confidencein the outgoing Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Borut Pahor, seeped away in September after his proposal to reform pensions - with an increase in the pensionable age from 63 to 65 - was rejected in a popular referendum, and the subsequent split of the four-party centre-left coalition over disagreements on how to stabilise public finances. Pahor's centre-left Social Democrats (DS) are languishing in third place in surveys, with only 10.6% of voter preferences, compared to the 30.45% figure gleaned in the 2008 elections. Pahor is replaced as the leader of the left by Zoran Jankovic, the mayor of Ljubljana since 2006, who is standing as an independent candidate but is close to the progressive liberals, whose party Positive Slovenia (PS), which was formed only a few weeks ago, has reached 24% in the polls.
"In the first hundred days, we will adopt measures to stop the spiralling pessimism and the lack of confidence and of financial means," said Jansa, whose political opponents recognise his "ability to act in extraordinary situations". Together with serious cuts to public spending, privatisations and the rise in the pensionable age, all of which are criteria needed to stay in line with Maastricht criteria in the next two years, Jansa has also promised "the preservation of quality of life and 40,000 new jobs".
Yet if he is able to restore the confidence of voters and to form a government coalition, which is likely to be with the municipal electoral list of his former Public Administration Minister, the centrist Gregor Virant, who could earn as much as 6% of the vote, and other conservative parties, Jansa will find himself in a very different economic situation to that in which he came to power in 2004. At the time, Slovenia was recording growth figures of up to 6%, with unemployment at 5%.
Today, though, the economic crisis is having a serious impact on the Slovenian economy, which is orientated mainly towards the export of industrial products to eurozone and Balkans countries, where demand has been falling constantly since 2008. After the dramatic 7.8% fall of 2009, GDP is almost at a standstill, with growth for 2011 not due to exceed 1%. The closure of a number of industrial plants saw unemployment rise to 11.5% in September, while public debt is now 45.5% of GDP (against 23% in 2007). Following the decision by ratings agencies to downgrade Slovenian debt, interest rates on Slovenian government bonds rocketed to more than 7% in mid-November, the highest level since Ljubljana joined the Eurozone in 2007. The situation is considered to be unsustainable in the medium-term. (ANSAmed).
