12th Government of Slovenia

Cerar cabinet
Cerar cabinet
; 12th Cabinet of Slovenia
Dissolved
Date formed	18 September 2014
Date dissolved	13 September 2018
People and organisations
Head of state	Borut Pahor
Head of government	Prime Minister Miro Cerar (SMC)
Member party	Modern Centre Party (SMC); Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS); Social Democrats (SD); Independent (Ind)
History
Election(s)	2014 election
Predecessor	Bratušek cabinet
Successor	Šarec cabinet

The 12th Government of Slovenia, led by Prime Minister Miro Cerar, was announced on 18 September 2014. It was formed following the 2014 parliamentary election won by the centre-left Party of Miro Cerar; it was the third government formed over four years. At 51 years, Cerar was the second oldest Prime Minister of Slovenia since Independence, following Andrej Bajuk at 56 years. The cabinet had on the day of inauguration the highest number of women ministers representatives, as there were seven women ministers out of sixteen ministers in total. Cerar's cabinet was the highest educated cabinet to date, with six members with a doctorate.

After the resignation of Alenka Bratušek's cabinet, President Borut Pahor determined that the new elections would take place on 13 July 2014. With 34.49% Cerar won by the highest percentage on any parliamentary elections since Independence. It was decided not to cooperate with the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), as its 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 (DeSUS) Karel Erjavec, with whom Cerar gathered the necessary 45+ seats in Parliament. The next and last to join the coalition was Dejan Židan with his Social Democrats (SD) 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 and 1 minister without portfolio
Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS): 3 ministers and 1 minister without portfolio
Social Democrats (SD): 3 ministers
Independent (Ind): 1 minister

On the 14 March 2018, following the verdict of the Supreme Court of Slovenia to annul the referendum on the so-called "Second Railway track", Miro Cerar announced his resignation as Prime Minister.

Changes from the preceding cabinet[]

The number of ministries rose to 16, up from 13 in the preceding Cabinet of Alenka Bratušek. , , 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 of the government was renewed after 14 years, when 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 .
was also divided on two departments: 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, , resigned and was the first minister to do so in the new government. He resigned just after one month in the 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 but he backed down as a candidate when he got seriously ill just one day before the interrogation.^[4] After almost 2 months of vacancy, Slovenia got a new minister of economy. On December 4, 2014, the director of 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 Brussels 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 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) 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 , in regard to which she opined that the governmental decision was dictated by lobbies.^[10]

Current composition[]

		Party	Portfolio	Period
	Miro Cerar	SMC	Prime Minister	18 September 2014 –
	Karl Erjavec	DeSUS	Minister of Foreign Affairs	18 September 2014 –
	Dejan Židan	SD	Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food	18 September 2014 –
		SMC		18 September 2014 –
	Mateja Vraničar Erman	Independent	Minister of Finance	21 September 2016 –
	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 –
		SD		18 September 2014 –
		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 –
		SMC	Minister of Infrastructure	18 September 2014 –
		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 –
		DeSUS	Minister without portfolio for Slovenian diaspora	18 September 2014 –
Source: Vlada Republike Slovenije

Former members[]

	Party	Portfolio	Period
	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
	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
	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

References[]

^ "Cerar zavrnil možnost koalicije z SDS". Siol.net. 7 July 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
^ "Cerar kljub kritikam koalicijskega osnutka upa na široko koalicijo". Siol.net. 29 July 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
^ "Slovenian economy minister resigns after month in office". MMC RTV Slovenija. 18 October 2014.
^ "Koprivec ne bo gospodarski minister, Cerarju bi novo ime iskala SD in DeSUS". MMC RTV Slovenija. 17 November 2014.
^ "Počivalšek is confirmed". MMC RTV Slovenija. 3 December 2014.
^ "Official: Slovenia names Bulc as a new EU commissioner candidate". MMC RTV Slovenija. 10 October 2014.
^ "Potrjena nova ministrica in rebalans proračuna". MMC RTV Slovenija. 19 November 2014.
^ "Cerar accepted the resignation offered by Setnikar Cankar". 6 March 2014.
^ Markeževa po dveh dneh dela odstopila
^ "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. Archived from the original on 2016-07-17. Retrieved 2016-05-04.

External links[]

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

[Cerar_zavrnil_možnost_koalicije_z_SDS-1] "Cerar zavrnil možnost koalicije z SDS". Siol.net. 7 July 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2015.

[Cerar_kljub_kritikam_koalicijskega_osnutka_upa_na_široko_koalicijo-2] "Cerar kljub kritikam koalicijskega osnutka upa na široko koalicijo". Siol.net. 29 July 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2015.

[Slovenian_economy_minister_resigns-3] "Slovenian economy minister resigns after month in office". MMC RTV Slovenija. 18 October 2014.

[Koprivec_ne_bo_gospodarski_minister-4] "Koprivec ne bo gospodarski minister, Cerarju bi novo ime iskala SD in DeSUS". MMC RTV Slovenija. 17 November 2014.

[Počivalšek_is_confirmed-5] "Počivalšek is confirmed". MMC RTV Slovenija. 3 December 2014.

[Slovenia_names_Bulc-6] "Official: Slovenia names Bulc as a new EU commissioner candidate". MMC RTV Slovenija. 10 October 2014.

[Potrjena_nova_ministrica-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. Archived from the original on 2016-07-17. Retrieved 2016-05-04.

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v t Cabinets of the Republic of Slovenia
Main topics	Government of Slovenia List of governments of Slovenia Prime Minister of Slovenia
Cabinets	1st: Peterle (1990–1992) 8th: Janša I (2004–2008) 10th: Janša II (2012–2013) 11th: Bratušek (2013–2014) 12th: Cerar (2014–2018) 13th: Šarec (2018–2020) 14th: Janša III (2020–present)