Modern Centre Party

The Modern Centre Party (Slovene: Stranka modernega centra, SMC) is a centrist and social-liberal political party in Slovenia led by Minister of Economical Development and Techonolgy Zdravko Počivalšek, who is its second president and succeeded former Prime Minister and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Miro Cerar.

Modern Centre Party

Stranka modernega centra
PresidentZdravko Počivalšek
FounderMiro Cerar
Founded2 June 2014 (As Party of
Miro Cerar)
HeadquartersLjubljana
IdeologySocial liberalism
Liberalism[1]
Pro-Europeanism
Political positionCentre[2] to centre-left[3][4][5][6]
Regional affiliationLiberal South East European Network
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliationLiberal International[7]
National Assembly
8 / 90
Mayors
2 / 212
Municipal council
91 / 2,750
Website
www.strankasmc.si/

History

The party was established during the founding congress on 2 June 2014 as the Party of Miro Cerar (Stranka Mira Cerarja, SMC).[8][9] SMC was spearheaded by Miro Cerar, a law professor and legal advisor to parliament,[10] and the son of a famous Yugoslav Slovene athlete.[11] The party rapidly ascended to top opinion polls shortly after its establishment.[10]

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,[12] the most parliamentary seats of any party in the independent nation's history.[13] Miro Cerar was appointed as the Prime Minister designate.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

On 7 March 2015, at the SMC party congress, the name of the party was changed to Modern Centre Party.[17][18]

After its record-setting electoral victory in 2014,[13] 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.[19]

In the wake of the 2018 parliamentary election, Milan Brglez, hitherto Speaker of Parliament and SMC vice-president, was ejected from the party in a 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.[20][21][22] 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.[23][24] 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.[21] On 2019 party congress Zdravko Počivalšek was elected a new president of the party.

Following the negotiation to form a 14th Government under premiership of Janez Janša, which SMC would join, founder and former president Miro Cerar left the party saying that it no longer "pursued its founding values" and called on other party members to do the same.[25]

Ideology

The party's initial focus was the "rule of law, liberalising the economy and improving the efficiency of the public sector".[10] 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.[11]

Electoral results

Parliamentary elections
Parliament of Slovenia
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote Rank Overall seats won Seat change Government
2014 Miro Cerar 298,342 34.61% 1st
36 / 90
 New Government
2018 86,868 9.75% 4th
10 / 90
 26 Government

Presidential elections
Year Candidate 1st round 2nd round Elected?
Popular vote % of popular vote Rank Popular vote % of popular vote
2017 Maja Makovec Brenčič 13,052 1,73% 7th No

European Parliament elections
Year Lead candidate Popular vote % of popular vote Rank Overall seats won Seat change
2019 Gregor Perič 7,823 1.62% 12th
0 / 8
 New

Local elections
Year Leader Popular vote % of popular vote Rank Overall seats won Seat change
2014 Miro Cerar 76,420 11.11% 2nd
293 / 2,750
 New
2018 31,942 4.13% 6th
91 / 2,750
 202
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References
  1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018). "Slovenia". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
  2. "Sunday's Vote Battle of Old and New and Divisions on Way Forward". The Slovenia Times. 11 July 2014.
  3. Tom Lansford, ed. (2015). Political Handbook of the World 2015. CQ Press. p. 5557. ISBN 978-1-4833-7155-9.
  4. Novak, Marja (19 June 2014). "Slovene PM hopeful says is against Telekom privatisation". Reuters.
  5. "Opinion poll: 41 percent of Slovenians want Miro Cerar as prime minister". MMC RTV SLO. 16 June 2014.
  6. Nuttall, Clare (24 June 2014). "Newcomer leads in Slovenian election campaign". BNE Business News Europe. Archived from the original on 29 June 2014.
  7. https://liberal-international.org/members/smc_slovenia/
  8. "Cerar: Razdeljeno ljudstvo je šibko, kar vladajoči vedno izrabijo :: Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija". Rtvslo.si. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  9. "Stranka Mira Cerarja". Mirocerar.si. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
  10. Novak, Marja. "Slovene PM hopeful says is against Telekom privatisation". U.S. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  11. "Son of local hero bids to lead Slovenia to limited makeover". Reuters. 2014-07-10. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  12. Predčasne Volitve V Državni Zbor 2014 Republika Slovenija - Državna volilna komisija. Accessed 13 July 2014
  13. "SMC po številu poslancev presegla rekord Janeza Drnovška". Dnevnik. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  14. "Neuradni rezultati: Cerar najverjetnejši novi premier". Mladina.si. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  15. Solutions, EIU Digital. "SMC has little success at local elections". country.eiu.com. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  16. "ALDE Party welcomes new member parties". ALDE Party. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  17. "Miro Cerar's Name Out as SMC Renamed Modern Centre Party". www.sloveniatimes.com (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  18. "Slovenia PM optimistic over 'fragile' economic recovery". Yahoo News UK. 7 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  19. Kos, Katarina Bulatović, Suzana. "Pod Šarcem nastaja nova LDS" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  20. "STA: Brglez expelled from SMC". english.sta.si. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  21. "SMC expels high-profile party member Milan Brglez :: Prvi interaktivni multimedijski portal, MMC RTV Slovenija". www.rtvslo.si. Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  22. "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.
  23. "Brglez: Moja izključitev je bila povsem zrežiran dogodek #video" (in Slovenian). Retrieved 2018-07-01.
  24. "Brglez napisal pismo lokalnim odborom SMC" (PDF).
  25. www.rtvslo.si https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/cerar-izstopil-iz-smc-ja-pocivalsek-iti-moramo-naprej/515953. Retrieved 2020-03-02. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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