The Speaker of the National Assembly Pavel Gantar handed in his resignation on Wednesday, a day earlier than expected. His successor will be appointed at an extraordinary session on Friday, the college of deputy group leaders decided today.
Gantar's resignation came as no surprise, as he announced already in July that he would step down on 1 September. He decided for the move after Zares, a party he is a member of, left the coalition in June.
The ruling coalition's candidate for the new speaker is deputy Ljubo Germic of the Liberal Democrats (LDS), who is expected to be appointed on Friday, after the National Assembly takes note of Gantar's resignation.
At the Friday session, the first after summer recess, the deputies will also take note of Justice Minister Ales Zalar's standing in temporarily for interior minister after LDS leader Katarina Kresal stepped down from the post earlier this month over corruption allegations.
At the extraordinary session, the deputies will also decide about the government-proposed motion for a constitutional review of a request for a referendum against the new family law act.
Gantar concluded the final session of the college of deputy leaders he chaired by apologising to anybody he might have offended, and wished the new speaker that he would do a good job.
When he announced his resignation, Gantar initially wanted to wait for PM Borut Pahor to request a confidence vote. But he said that it soon became clear that the confidence vote would be procrastinated late into autumn, which was longer than he was willing to stay speaker.
Pahor expressed regret over Gantar's decision, as he believed that the resignation would mean immediate crisis for the National Assembly.
Gantar, on the other hand, expressed belief that his resignation would not contribute to the crisis, but rather help in resolving it. He stressed in July that the government crisis must not spread to parliament, saying that either a new speaker must be appointed or an early general election called.
Gantar, one of the founding members of Zares, was appointed speaker in October 2008. During this time, two motions to dismiss him were voted down. Both were filed by the opposition Democrats (SDS) and National Party (SNS) after Gantar rejected their requests for extraordinary sessions.
Gantar, who was born in 1949, holds a PhD in social sciences and has held two ministerial posts under the governments led by the Liberal Democrats (LDS). Between 1994 and 2000 he was environment minister and became minister for IT society in 2001.
He was elected an MP in 2004 as a member of the LDS, but joined Gregor Golobic and several other former LDS members in founding Zares in 2007.
SOURCE: Slovenia Times
