After a day of silence reliable sources close to the Citizens' List, who wish to remain anonymous, say the Citizens' List will step out of Alenka Bratušek's government in the case of a party election win by Zoran Janković.
The fall of the government? That's not my responsibility!
On Monday this is how Mr. Janković commented a question about whether he realized that his victory at the congress would mean the fall of the government: "That's not my responsibility, but the responsibility of those who like to calculate and like to put in and take out people from the government and meddle in the affairs of Positive Slovenia."
Tomorrow they'll want to name a Positive Slovenia secretary
"We never interfered about who they would put in the government. But tomorrow they'll want to name our Positive Slovenia secretary. If they don't feel any responsibility, then they should start doing so. The members of the congress are those who will decide," said Janković, referring to the coalition partners of Positive Slovenia - the Citizen's List and DeSUS in particular.
He won't come only if he's detained
"I won't come to the congress only in the case if I'm detained, which they won't dare to do," is what Janković said when he was asked whether he would withdraw his candidacy at the Positive Slovenia congress on the 25th of April. Not long ago he backed an ousting motion against the leader of the Citizens' List, Gregor Virant. According to him Virant was "caught in a lie" while trying to explain the purchase of cheaper airline tickets before a state institution – the Prevention Corruption Commission. While Virant maintained that the tickets were purchased by his wife, an e-mail released by the media proves that Virant had personal correspondence with Adria Airways representatives about the tickets. Virant did not hold any official post at that time.
At least four MPs support Janković
Four parliamentary members of the Positive Slovenia party, Stanko Stepišnik, Barbara Žgajner, Tina Komel and Jožef Kavtičnik, backed the ousting motion against Virant, even though the Positive Slovenia parliamentary group decided to boycott the procedure and left the parliament hall before the vote.
DeSUS and SD calling for calm
Commenting Zoran Janković's decision to run for Positive Slovenia president, the leader of the coalition DeSUS party, Karl Erjavec, said he feared we were heading towards politically unstable times. Erjavec expects Janković to win the party vote. However he doesn't believe that Alenka Bratušek would accept to be a puppet in Janković's hands. His opinion is that we face a complicated political situation.
Bratušek won't be a puppet
Janković commented that he could become party president and that Bratušek could remain PM at the same time. Mr. Erjavec sees this as problematic, as it would be difficult for someone who's not a party leader to lead a government. Besides that he doesn't believe Bratušek would accept that. "I see there will be problems. I don't believe Alenka Bratušek would accept to be a puppet in the hands of Zoran Janković," doubts Erjavec.
According to him that's also a problem for the coalition. The coalition has expressed many times that it expects Bratušek to bring decisions independently, without Janković in the background.
Lukšič the reconciler
The president of the SD party Igor Lukšič stressed that governments fall apart when the first coalition partners decide to exit. "And we won't be the ones," he added.
A reminder: The Corruption Prevention Commission report about the personal assets of party leaders incriminated the president of the SDS party, Janez Janša, and the founder of Positive Slovenia, Zoran Janković. Because of that Virant demanded that both resign from their functions. That was also the reason why Virant walked out of Janša's government, and the reason why Janković "froze" his presidential role in Positive Slovenia. Since then the party that won most of the votes in the last election, Positive Slovenia, has been led by Alenka Bratušek, who also managed to form a government.
