Slovenia's first post-independence prime minister, MEP Lojze Peterle, is founding a new movement dubbed Fokus 2031 with the aim of forming a strong Christian Democratic bloc. He believes the current ruling political elite is incapable of finding an effective solution to overcome the crisis.
According to Peterle, who announced the founding meeting for 16 September, the initiators of the movement believe that Slovenia is facing a survival crisis again after 20 years of independence.
Peterle told the press that to re-establish the quality of Slovenian politics, the political arena should be normalised, the parties should clarify their positions and establish an open political dialogue.
Fokus 2031 will be a movement of people with similar views, but will not be subordinated to any party, nor will it become one, Peterle, a member of the non-parliamentary party Nova Slovenija (NSi), said.
The movement which does not want to attract masses but rather experts, will focus on finding concrete and long-term solutions for Slovenia, he said, adding that "based on Christian Democratic political origins, the movement will have a non-partisan and intergenerational character".
While Peterle did not want to give away the names of the founders, saying they were "strong names who care about Slovenia", the media reports suggested that they included former Labour Minister Ivan Drobnic and Slovenia's first Economy Minister Izidor Rejc.
Political analysts Samo Uhan and Matevz Tomsic doubt that Lojze Peterle was completely sincere when he said that Fokus 2031 was not aiming to become a party.
Uhan, a professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences, said that everybody who wants to form a new party, starts by denying it because of the fear of failure.
"It is very opportunistic to say that you are not founding a party, but on the other hand you fail to explain why articulate a part of the political position."
Tomsic of the Nova Gorica-based School of Advanced Social Studies agreed that Peterle's announcement that he would not go to elections with the movement was not written in stone, adding that should Fokus 2031 decide to stand for parliament, "such a political group would only weaken the NSi and make it harder for it to get into parliament".
He moreover said that it was not yet clear what the movement's aim was, because Peterle did not offer anything concrete regarding the programme.
Uhan meanwhile said that the movement was an attempt to form a more Christian-related political profile as well as the result of Peterle's dissatisfaction with the NSi's leadership.
Peterle was the leader of the Slovenian Christian Democrats (SKD) from the founding of the party in 1990 until it merged with the People's Party (SLS) in 2000, after which he switched to the NSi. In 2007, he was running for president but lost in a landslide to Danilo Tuerk in the run-off.
SOURCE: SLOVENIA TIMES
