Slovenian government coalition in crisis but will carry on

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) -- Slovenia's ruling parties declared their coalition agreement dead Wednesday after falling out over a new electoral law, but agreed to remain in government until a general election.

The end of the coalition agreement between Prime Minister Andrej Bajuk's conservative People's Party (SLS) and the center-right Social Democrats (SDS) followed a parliamentary vote Tuesday night to enshrine the present proportional representation system in the constitution.

The Social Democrats, the junior party in the coalition, had wanted to replace it with a "winner takes all" majority voting system.

The two parties depend on the votes of independents for their slender majority in parliament.

Bajuk, who also supports the majority system, said he would remain in office until the election but intended to form a new party after that.

"I decided to leave the party and form a new political option...but will use all my powers to ensure continuous normal work of the present government," Bajuk told a news conference.

Among prominent SLS members only Foreign Minister Lojze Peterle has so far said he was considering joining the new party.

The head of SLS, Franc Zagozen, said his party would continue to support the coalition and that he saw no reason for Bajuk to resign as prime minister.

"We expect parliament will be ready for constructive work...A no-confidence vote just before elections is not an option," Zagozen told a separate news conference.

The Social Democrats also said they intended to remain in government.

Social Democrat spokeswoman Patricija Sasek told Reuters: "The main task of the new government is to continue Slovenia's preparations for the European Union and this should not depend upon problems in internal politics.."

The new government took office only seven weeks ago after the previous center-left administration of former Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek lost its majority in April.

Months of political uncertainty have delayed Slovenia's preparations for possible membership of the European Union.

Parliament faces a substantial backlog of legislation which must be adopted to harmonize the prosperous Alpine republic's laws with those of the EU. Slovenia started EU membership negotiations in 1998 and hopes to be ready to join by 2003.

Slovenia has been using a proportional representation system since it won independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

In enshrining the law in the constitution, parliament made it a requirement that parties must win at least four percent of the total vote in order to secure any seats. That compares with three percent at present.

Parties will also no longer be able to use a preferential party list to allocate seats to members who get insufficient votes to win a direct mandate.

President Milan Kucan started talks Wednesday with parliamentary parties on possible election dates and is expected to announce one later this week. The election is due in October or November at the latest.

Political commentators said the coalition had a reasonable chance of holding together for the next few months.

"I think the government will manage to stay together despite the problems, especially since elections are very near," said Jana Taskar of Slovenia's largest newspaper Delo.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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