Leaders of five Slovenian liberal and centre-left parties signed a coalition agreement on Wednesday, based on which the new government, led by Prime Minister-Designate Marjan Sarec (LMS).

Leaders of five Slovenian liberal and centre-left parties signed a coalition agreement on Wednesday, based on which the new government, led by Prime Minister-Designate Marjan Sarec (LMS).

Along with Sarec’s party, which holds 13 seats in the 90-seat parliament, the agreement was signed by the Modern Centre (SMC) party led by the outgoing Prime Minister Miro Cerar, the Social Democrats (SD), the Democratic Party of Pensioners (DESUS), and former Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek and her SAB party.

The five parties have 43 deputies in Slovenian Parliament, making the future cabinet formally a minority government, which is the first such government to lead Slovenia since the country’s independence in 1991.

The majority in parliament will be secured by the opposition party The Left (L), which has 9 seats and which decided to agree a partnership protocol with Sarec’s government, without actually joining the ruling coalition.

In his statement to reporters after the signing of the coalition agreement, Sarec said that he was pleased to see that three-month negotiations about the coalition ended in success. He also dismissed criticism that his cabinet is bound to be unstable, inefficient and short-lived due to the large number of parties composing it.

“I believe we achieved what we all wanted today, and that the government will start working within two weeks from now,” Sarec said.

The new government’s priority will be fixing the national health care system, and will be facing tough negotiations with public sector unions who had went on strike in the spring, demanding salary increase that was promised by previous governments.

Sarec will formally submit to Parliament a list of cabinet candidates on Friday, and the lawmakers are expected to vote on the new government on September 13.

Outgoing Prime Minister, Miro Cerar, is expected to become the new Foreign Minister, replacing Karl Erjavec who would become the new Defence Minister. Former Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek is expected to become Infrastructure Minister.

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