The leader of the centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), Janez Jansa, on Thursday informed the country's president, Borut Pahor, that for the time being he could not accept the role of prime minister-designate to form a new government, but that he hoped that he could rally the necessary parliamentary majority in the coming weeks.

“Currently the necessary majority in parliament to form a stable government does not exist,” said Jansa, whose party had won 25 seats in the 90-seat parliament in the early election in June, in a message to Pahor.

By doing so, Jansa turner down the role of PM-designate offered to him by President Pahor, who was expected to nominate a PM-designate by July 23 so that the parliament could vote on the future prime minister.

As the first attempt to form a coalition that would command majority has failed, a second, 14-day period will follow, during which candidates for the PM-designate can be proposed by both the president and parliamentary groups, with the president’s possible nominee taking precedence, and the parliament voting on the president’s nominee first.

The possibility of forming the necessary parliamentary majority still exists, “as a vast majority of parties do not want yet another snap election, even though the stability and efficiency of the government could be in jeopardy,” Jansa said in his letter to the president.

Although Jansa’s centre-right SDS won a relative majority of 25 seats in the largely fragmented 90-seat parliament, it does not have much potential to form a coalition government, as left-leaning and centrist parties refuse to enter coalition with them.

Jansa had based his campaign in the run-up to the June election on anti-migrant policies, and is seen by many of its potential partner parties as having gone too far to the right of the political spectrum, with some saying that his rhetoric has caused divisions in Slovenia’s politics and society.

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