Modern Centre Party

Modern Centre Party
Stranka modernega centra
President Miro Cerar
Founded 2 June 2014
Headquarters Ljubljana
Membership (2015) 3,000[1]
Ideology Social liberalism[2]
Liberalism[2]
Pro-Europeanism
Political position Centre[3] to centre-left[4][5][6][7]
European affiliation Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation Liberal International[8]
European Parliament group No MEPs
National Assembly
9 / 90
Website
www.strankasmc.si/

The Modern Centre Party (Slovene: Stranka modernega centra, SMC) is a social-liberal[2] political party in Slovenia led by former Prime Minister Miro Cerar.

History

2014-2018: Establishment, victory, government

The party was established during the founding congress on 2 June 2014 as the Party of Miro Cerar (Stranka Mira Cerarja, SMC).[9][10] SMC was spearheaded by Miro Cerar, a law professor and legal advisor to parliament,[11] and the son of a famous Slovene athlete.[12] The party rapidly ascended to top opinion polls shortly after its establishment.[11]

Only six weeks after its establishment, on 13 July 2014, the party received 34.6% of the vote in the 2014 parliamentary election, winning a plurality of 36 seats in the National Assembly,[13] the most parliamentary seats of any party in the independent nation's history.[14] Miro Cerar was appointed as the Prime Minister designate.[15]

On 18 September 2014, the Cerar cabinet was formed, with the SMC as lead party in a coalition with the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) and Social Democrats (SD).

Despite the outstanding performance during the parliamentary elections, SMC saw little success during the 2014 local elections, failing to win a single mayoral post.[16]

On 21 November 2014, the SMC was admitted as a full member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) at the ALDE congress in Lisbon.[17]

On 7 March 2015, at the SMC party congress, the name of the party was changed to Modern Centre Party.[18][19]

2018 parliamentary election

After its record-setting electoral victory in 2014,[14] SMC parliamentary representation was decimated in the 2018 Slovenian parliamentary election, the party having garnered just 9.8% of the vote, thus winning only 10 MP seats.[20]

In the wake of the 2018 parliamentary election, Milan Brglez, hitherto Speaker of Parliament and SMC vice-president, was ejected from the party in an unanimous decision by the party's executive committee. Brglez alleged the expulsion was a result of his principled opposition to and criticism of some party decisions, and for his opposing a prospective SMC coalition with the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party.[21][22][23] Brglez further stated that the expulsion precipitated after allegations surfaced that he was considering a self-candidacy for a second speakership term (which Brglez denied) that enraged Cerar (who was purportedly also vying for the post), and that the expulsion was concocted by Cerar, who orchestrated it with a bottom-up reshuffling of willing party functionaries so as to enable the expulsion.[24][25] Brglez had been known to quarrel with Cerar about government policy during Cerar's premiership, with Cerar calling on Brglez to resign on one occasion, though the two later partially reconciled.[22]

Ideology

The party's initial focus was the "rule of law, liberalising the economy and improving the efficiency of the public sector".[11] Cerar also voiced support for "liberalising the economy and labour market rules, cutting red tape and selling off smaller state firms", but offered few policy details before the party's premiere election.[12]

Electoral results

Parliament of Slovenia
Year Popular vote % of popular vote Overall seats won Seat change Government
2014 298,342 34.61%
36 / 90
 Increase 36 Coalition
2018 86,868 9.75%
10 / 90
 Decrease 26 Coalition

References

  1. ↑ Jancic, Peter. "Najdražje je članstvo v SMC, najcenejši Desus". Delo. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Slovenia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  3. ↑ "Sunday's Vote Battle of Old and New and Divisions on Way Forward". The Slovenia Times. 11 July 2014.
  4. ↑ Tom Lansford, ed. (2015). Political Handbook of the World 2015. CQ Press. p. 5557. ISBN 978-1-4833-7155-9.
  5. ↑ Novak, Marja (19 June 2014). "Slovene PM hopeful says is against Telekom privatisation". Reuters.
  6. ↑ "Opinon poll: 41 percent of Slovenians want Miro Cerar as prime minister". MMC RTV SLO. 16 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Nuttall, Clare (24 June 2014). "Newcomer leads in Slovenian election campaign". BNE Business News Europe. Archived from the original on 29 June 2014.
  8. ↑ https://liberal-international.org/members/smc_slovenia/
  9. ↑ "Cerar: Razdeljeno ljudstvo je šibko, kar vladajoči vedno izrabijo :: Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija". Rtvslo.si. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  10. ↑ "Stranka Mira Cerarja". Mirocerar.si. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  11. 1 2 3 Novak, Marja. "Slovene PM hopeful says is against Telekom privatisation". U.S. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  12. 1 2 "Cutting Red Tape". Cutting Red Tape. 2006-11-28. doi:10.1787/9789264029798-en. ISSN 1997-6666.
  13. ↑ Predčasne Volitve V Državni Zbor 2014 Republika Slovenija - Državna volilna komisija. Accessed 13 July 2014
  14. 1 2 "SMC po številu poslancev presegla rekord Janeza Drnovška". Dnevnik. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  15. ↑ "Neuradni rezultati: Cerar najverjetnejši novi premier". Mladina.si. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  16. ↑ Solutions, EIU Digital. "SMC has little success at local elections". country.eiu.com. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  17. ↑ "ALDE Party welcomes new member parties". ALDE Party. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  18. ↑ "Miro Cerar's Name Out as SMC Renamed Modern Centre Party". www.sloveniatimes.com (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  19. ↑ "Slovenia PM optimistic over 'fragile' economic recovery". Yahoo News UK. 7 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  20. ↑ Kos, Katarina Bulatović, Suzana. "Pod Šarcem nastaja nova LDS" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  21. ↑ "STA: Brglez expelled from SMC". english.sta.si. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  22. 1 2 "SMC expels high-profile party member Milan Brglez :: Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija". www.rtvslo.si. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  23. ↑ "Milan Brglez: Vrgli so me iz SMC, ker sem bil proti koaliciji s SDS". Časnik Večer d.o.o. (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  24. ↑ "Brglez: Moja izključitev je bila povsem zrežiran dogodek #video" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  25. ↑ "Brglez napisal pismo lokalnim odborom SMC" (PDF).


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.