As Kavtičnik explained, Kos and Velikonja believed Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek would ask the national assembly for a vote of confidence, and “because this hasn’t happened, they returned to the parliamentary group of Positive Slovenia”.

Any other talks of returns?
In response to a question from the media, if the party has had any other talks with deputies thinking about joining Positive Slovenia’s parliamentary group, Kavtičnik said he did not hold talks with anyone. “But I’m available to talk if anyone is interested,” assures Kavtičnik.

Unkept promises
“It has turned out that some haven’t keep their promises from last week – that the prime minister would be in a better position to negotiate if we stayed together as a group,” told Jože Velikonja to MMC this morning about his reasons for returning to Positive Slovenia’s parliamentary group.

The deputy who joined the parliamentary group of the unaffiliated led by Jani Möderndorfer last week, held talks with Positive Slovenia’s local committee in Hrastnik. The latter refuses to “put an end to the story”.

Reasons for return
“We cannot accept the fact that we were forced to take sides with either one name or the other at the congress, while both sides claimed they supported the programme, saying that the programme was ours,” described Velikonja where the hesitation of the party membership stemmed from.

No point in supporting a non-existing government
“We had all said we supported the government, but in the end it did not turn out like that. The prime minister has now resigned. Supporting a government that doesn’t exist is a problem. It’s not logical,” added Velikonja.

Waverer counter still changing
Jožef Kavtičnik, who became the leader of Positive Slovenia’s deputies on Tuesday, has emphasized that their door is still open to anyone who might change his or her mind. Following the return of Kos and Velikonja, the counter of “political waverers” now points to 13 deputies for Positive Slovenia and Zoran Janković, and to 11 unaffiliated deputies who support Alenka Bratušek. But the count is probably not over yet.

Who is where?
The President of the National Assembly, Janko Veber, received statements of 14 deputies on 30 April, informing him of their withdrawal from the parliamentary group of Positive Slovenia. Jani Möderndorfer handed in a formal proposal to Veber for a new parliamentary group with 12 deputy members to be founded.

Möderndorfer lost two
In addition to Möderndorfer, last week’s proposal for a new parliamentary group also received support from Saša Kos and Jože Velikonja, as well as Jerko Čehovin, Maja Dimitrovski, Aljoša Jerič, Darko Jazbec, Jožef Kunič, Mitja Meršol, Alenka Pavlič, Alojz Potočnik and Peter Vilfan.

Deputies Dragan Bosnić and Matjaž Zanoškar have decided to continue their political careers as independent unaffiliated deputies.

The parliamentary group split from Positive Slovenia after Zoran Janković won against Alenka Bratušek at the party’s congress vote for president.