February 16 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's government led by the populist conservative Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) survived late on Monday a no-confidence vote filed by the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) and the Constitutional Arch Coalition (KUL), parliament said.
The motion received the support of 40 MPs in the 90-seat parliament, with seven votes against and six invalid ballots, leaving the opposition short of the 46 votes required to overthrow the government of prime minister Janez Jansa, according to a transcript of the session, posted on the website of Slovenia's parliament.
Last week, the leader of DeSUS, Karl Erjavec, said he secured the signatures of a total of ten MPs from DeSUS, as well as centre-left opposition parties List of Marjan Sarec, Social Democrats and Alenka Bratusek Party, and the socialist Left party, members of KUL, to file the motion. The government undermines the constitutional principles by violating the separation of powers, freedom of the press, respect of human rights and the rule of law, Erjavec said back then.
"Everything is subordinated to the transformation of the state into an authoritarian democracy," Erjavec said prior to the vote on Monday.
For his part, Jansa called the motion a farce. "You have filed a vote of no confidence on 10 signatures, so of course this is not a constructive vote of no confidence but a destructive farce," Jansa said.
In January, Erjavec withdrew a motion of no-confidence against the government because he would have been unable to muster the support of at least 46 lawmakers due to COVID-19 infections or mandatory self-isolation.