Cabinet of Miro Cerar

Cerar cabinet
12th cabinet of Slovenia
Incumbent
Date formed	18 September 2014
People and organisations
Head of government	Miro Cerar
Head of state	Borut Pahor
Member party	Modern Centre Party (SMC) Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) Social Democrats (SD)
History
Election(s)	2014 Election
Predecessor	Bratušek cabinet

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Miro Cerar was announced on 18 September 2014. It is the 12th cabinet of Slovenia, third in the last four years. It has been formed following the Slovenian parliamentary election, 2014 won by the centre-left Party of Miro Cerar. With 51 years Cerar was the second oldest Slovenian prime minister since Slovenian independence, following Andrej Bajuk with 56 years. The cabinet had on the day of inauguration the highest number of women ministers representatives, as there were seven women minsters out of sixteen ministers in total. Cerar's cabinet is the highest educated cabinet to date, with six members with doctorate.

After the resignation of the Cabinet of Alenka Bratušek, the president Borut Pahor determined that the new elections are goint to take place on 13 July 2014. With 34,49% Cerar won by the highest percentage on any parliamentary elections since the independence. The new mandatary decided not to cooperate with Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), as their leader Janez Janša was sentenced to two years imprisonment.^[1] On 28 July 2014 Cerar sent an outline of the coalition agreement to all other parties that attended the coalition talks. The first to agree was the president of Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia Karel Erjavec, with whoom Cerar gathered the necessary 45+ seats in the parliament. The next and also the last to join the coalition was Dejan Židan with his Social Democrats party.^[2] The Coalition agreement was signed on 3 September 2014.

Cabinet members came from three parties of the new coalition:

• Party of Miro Cerar (SMC) - 8 Ministers + 1 Minister without portfolio
• Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) - 3 Ministers + 1 Minister without portfolio
• Social Democrats (SD) - 3 Ministers

Changes from the preceding cabinet

The number of ministries rose to 16, up from 13 in the preceding Cabinet of Alenka Bratušek. Anja Kopač Mrak, Gorazd Žmavc, Dejan Židan and Karel Erjavec have retained their position.

• Ministry without Portfolio responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion was added on the list of ministries without portfolio. With this change, the number of ministries without portfolio rose to two.
• The position of the Vice president of the government was renewed after 14 years, when Marjan Podobnik was the last to hold it. Cerar named three vice presidents.
• Ministry of Interior and Public Administration was divided on two ministries: Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Public Administration.
• Minister of Infrastructure and Urban Planning was also divided on two departments: Ministry of Infrastructure and newly formed (already existent in some previous governments) Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning.

List of ministers and portfolios

History

• On 18 October 2014, the minister of economy, Jožef Petrovič, resigned and was the first minister to do so in the new government. He resigned just after one month in position because of suspicion of wrongdoing when he worked at a company that was rigging prices when dealing with the state. As he stated he resigned "to enable the government to work in peace in these troubled times".^[3] The next candidate was supposed to be Gojko Koprivec but he backed down as a candidate when he got seriously ill just one day before the interrogation.^[4] After almost 2 monts of vacancy, Slovenia got a new minister of economy. On December 4, 2014, the director of Spa Olimia Zdravko Počivalšek replaced the ex-minister of economy Jožef Petrovič.^[5]
• On 10 October 2014 after Alenka Bratušek failed as a new European Commissioner designate, Slovenia named a new candidate. Minister without Portfolio responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion Violeta Bulc was sent to Brussles where she was confirmed as a new European Commissioner for Transport. With her appointment, the ministry became vacant.^[6] Cerar named Alenka Smerkolj as a new candidate. She was confirmed on 19 November 2014.^[7]
• On 6 March 2014 Minister of Education, Science and Sport Stanka Setnikar Cankar resigned because of revelation of her high earnings from royalties (636,000 euros since April 2004)^[8] After some time (intern minister was Miro Cerar) Klavdija Markež was appointed to take her position, starting on 30 March 2015.
• On 1 April 2015, after five days as minister, Klavdija Markež resigned amidst allegation of plagiarism regarding her MA thesis.^[9]
• On 25 April 2016, after she had been summoned by the Prime Minister Cerar to resign due to the delay in the execution of governmental decisions and she had refused to do so, the minister of culture, Julijana Bizjak Mlakar, did resign. The reason was her disagreement with the Prime Minister regarding the management of the Idrija Mine, in regard to which she opined that the governmental decision was dicateted by lobbies.^[10]

Current composition

	Minister		Party	Portfolio	Period
		Miro Cerar	SMC	Prime Minister	18 September 2014 –
		Karl Erjavec	DeSUS	Vice president Minister of Foreign Affairs	18 September 2014 –
		Dejan Židan	SD	Vice president Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food	18 September 2014 –
		Boris Koprivnikar	SMC	Vice president Minister of Public Administration	18 September 2014 –
		Dušan Mramor	Independent	Minister of Finance	18 September 2014 –
		Vesna Györkös Žnidar	SMC	Minister of Interior	18 September 2014 –
		Andreja Katič	SD	Minister of Defence	13 May 2015 –
		Zdravko Počivalšek	SMC	Minister of Economic Development and Technology	4 December 2014 –
		Goran Klemenčič	SMC	Minister of Justice	18 September 2014 –
		Anja Kopač Mrak	SD	Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities	18 September 2014 –
		Milojka Kolar Celarc	SMC	Minister of Health	18 September 2014 –
		Tone Peršak	DeSUS	Minister of Culture	20 May 2016 –
		Maja Makovec Brenčič	SMC	Minister of Education, Science and Sport	13 May 2015 –
		Peter Gašperšič	SMC	Minister of Infrastructure	18 September 2014 –
		Irena Majcen	DeSUS	Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning	18 September 2014 –
		Alenka Smerkolj	SMC	Minister without Portfolio responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion	19 November 2014 –
		Gorazd Žmavc	DeSUS	Minister without portfolio for Slovenian diaspora	18 September 2014 –
Source: Vlada Republike Slovenije

Former members

	Minister		Party	Portfolio	Period
		Jožef Petrovič	SMC	Minister of Economic Development and Technology	18 September 2014 – 4 December 2014
		Violeta Bulc	SMC	Minister without Portfolio responsible for Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion	18 September 2014 – 19 November 2014
		Stanka Setnikar Cankar	SMC	Minister of Education, Science and Sport	18 September 2014 –6 March 2015
		Janko Veber	SD	Minister of Defence	18 September 2014 –13 May 2015
		Klavdija Markež	SMC	Minister of Education, Science and Sport	27 March 2015 –1 April 2015
		Julijana Bizjak Mlakar	DeSUS	Minister of Culture	18 September 2014 –25 April 2016	Source: Vlada Republike Slovenije

See also

• Slovenian parliamentary election, 2014
• Prime Minister of Slovenia
• Government of Slovenia
• List of cabinets of Slovenia

References

1. "Cerar zavrnil možnost koalicije z SDS". Siol.net. 7 July 2014.
2. "Cerar kljub kritikam koalicijskega osnutka upa na široko koalicijo". Siol.net. 29 July 2014.
3. "Slovenian economy minister resigns after month in office". MMC RTV Slovenija. 18 October 2014.
4. "Koprivec ne bo gospodarski minister, Cerarju bi novo ime iskala SD in DeSUS". MMC RTV Slovenija. 17 November 2014.
5. "Počivalšek is confirmed". MMC RTV Slovenija. 3 December 2014.
6. "Official: Slovenia names Bulc as a new EU commissioner candidate". MMC RTV Slovenija. 10 October 2014.
7. "Potrjena nova ministrica in rebalans proračuna". MMC RTV Slovenija. 19 November 2014.
8. "Cerar accepted the resignation offered by Setnikar Cankar". 6 March 2014.
9. Markeževa po dveh dneh dela odstopila
10. "Bizjak Mlakarjeva odstopila in Cerarjevi vladi očitala, da deluje v interesu lobijev in zanemarja zakone" [Bizjak Mlakar Resigns and Accuses Cerar's Government of the Work in the Interest of Lobbies and of Neglecting the Laws]. Reporter.si (in Slovenian). 25 April 2016.

External links

• Official website of the Slovenian Government
• Chronology of Slovenian cabinets at vlada.si (Slovene)