Coalition parties press for Slovenia PM resignation

Two more coalition parties have threatened to quit Slovenia's government if conservative Prime Minister Janez Jansa did not resign following corruption accusations, deepening divisions in the five-party ruling alliance. The Slovenian pensioners' party DESUS and another junior coalition party, the centre-right Slovenian People's Party (SLS), announced their positions on Monday. Already Saturday, the Civil List (DL), another partner in the ruling coalition, had made a similar declaration. "DESUS's executive board demands Janez Jansa's resignation and if he does not resign, we will no longer be members of this coalition," DESUS leader and foreign minister Karl Erjavec told journalists after a party meeting. Jansa's resignation would open the way for early elections "that would represent the best way to halt the widespread dissatisfaction among citizens," he added. The leadership of a third junior coalition party, centre-right Slovenian People's Party (SLS) also urged Jansa to resign after a meeting Monday. "We expect you (Jansa) to propose as soon as possible a candidate to head the government that will enable us to carry out the needed reform measures," SLS leader Radovan Zerjav told journalists after the meeting. The SLS "will remain in this government until the end of the February parliament session," he added. "If nothing happens, the SLS will walk out of the coalition." The SDS accused both parties of "hypocrisy", in a response posted on Twitter. "The SDS did not choose the coalition partners' ministers in the government, therefore they (DESUS and SLS) have no right to dictate us who is going to be in the government," the party retorted. In a report published last week, Slovenia's anti-corruption commission accused Jansa of having repeatedly violated requirements to report his assets and having failed to explain a 210,000-euro ($280,000) increase in assets from 2004 to 2012. On Saturday, the Civil List of Parliament's president Gregor Virant threatened to quit the ruling coalition if Jansa did not resign within 10 days. After his Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) rejected his offer to resign as party chief, Jansa had called on all coalition parties to decide by Monday whether they wanted to stay in the coalition. A break-up of the coalition could lead to the creation of a technical government or even early elections.