Slovenia’s parliament endorses two-year budget with opposition support

By bne IntelliNews November 24, 2019

Slovenia’s parliament endorsed the draft state budget for 2020-2021 early on November 22 as PM Marjan Sarec managed to gain critical support from opposition parties after the Left party (Levica) withdrew its support for the government.

The minority government led by Sarec was on the brink of collapse since the leftist party decided to withdraw its support earlier this month due to disagreements over supplemental health insurance, which Levica wanted to be abolished.

The budgets were passed in a 49-41 vote with the support of the opposition National Party (SNS) and several other minority MPs.

The withdrawal of the Left party, left the majority short of three MPs in the 100-seat parliament which will make harder for Sarec to complete his four-year mandate.

"The first test was passed, but the troubles do not end," Sarec wrote on Twitter. He expects that the Democratic Party (DS) party to veto the budget implementation in the upper house of the parliament, but hopes that a solution will be found.

The Slovenian government plans surpluses for both years, 2020 and 2021. For 2019, the Slovenian budget surplus is projected to reach €194mn, or 0.4% of GDP. 

According to Finance Minister Andrej Bartoncelj, the budgets maintain a high level of social security, and also have a development component.

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