The Modern Centre Party ( sl, Stranka modernega centra, SMC) was a
social-liberal
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
led by
Minister of Economical Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek
Zdravko Počivalšek (born 25 November 1957) is a Slovenian politician. He served as the Minister of Economic Development and Technology in the 12th, 13th and 14th Government of Slovenia. He was also the president of Modern Centre Party from 2019 ...
, who succeeded former
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
and former
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...
Miro Cerar
Miroslav Cerar Jr. (, known as Miro Cerar ;) is a Slovenian law professor and politician. He was Prime Minister of Slovenia, leading the 12th Government. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 13th Government ...
as the party president. It formed in 2014 and merged with Economic Active Party in 2021, to form a party
Concretely
Concretely ( sl, Konkretno) is a liberal political party in Slovenia led by former Minister of Economical Development and Techonolgy Zdravko Počivalšek. Founding congress took place on 4 December 2021 in Celje. Concretly is a result of a mer ...
.
History
The party was established during the founding congress on 2 June 2014 as the ''Party of Miro Cerar'' (''Stranka Mira Cerarja'', SMC). SMC was spearheaded by Miro Cerar, a law professor and legal advisor to parliament,
and the son of a famous Yugoslav Slovene athlete.
The party rapidly ascended to top opinion polls shortly after its establishment.
Only six weeks after its establishment, on 13 July 2014, the party received 34.6% of the vote in the
2014 parliamentary election, winning a plurality of 36 seats in the National Assembly, the most parliamentary seats of any party in the independent nation's history.
Miro Cerar was appointed as the Prime Minister designate.
On 18 September 2014, the
Cerar cabinet was formed, with the SMC as lead party in a coalition with the
Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia
The Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia ( sl, Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije, also known by the acronym DeSUS) is a political party in Slovenia led by Ljubo Jasnič. The party claims broadly liberal values with a strong focu ...
(DeSUS) and
Social Democrats
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...
(SD).
Despite the outstanding performance during the parliamentary elections, SMC saw little success during the 2014 local elections, failing to win a single mayoral post.
On 21 November 2014, the SMC was admitted as a full member of the
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Euro ...
(ALDE) at the ALDE congress in
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
.
On 7 March 2015, at the SMC party congress, the name of the party was changed to ''Modern Centre Party''.
After its record-setting electoral victory in 2014,
SMC parliamentary representation was decimated in the
2018 Slovenian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 3 June 2018. The elections were originally expected to be held later in June 2018, but after the resignation of Prime Minister Miro Cerar on 14 March 2018 all parties called for snap elections. The ...
, the party having garnered just 9.8% of the vote, thus winning only 10 MP seats.
In the wake of the 2018 parliamentary election,
Milan Brglez
Milan Brglez (; born 1 September 1967) is a Slovenian political scientist and politician who served as Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia from 2014 to 2018. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019. A member ...
, hitherto Speaker of Parliament and SMC vice-president, was ejected from the party in a unanimous decision by the party's executive committee. Brglez alleged the expulsion was a result of his principled opposition to and criticism of some party decisions, and for his opposing a prospective SMC coalition with the right-wing
Slovenian Democratic Party
The Slovenian Democratic Party ( sl, Slovenska demokratska stranka, SDS), formerly the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia ( sl, Socialdemokratska stranka Slovenije, SDSS), is a conservative political party in Slovenia. It has been described as ...
.
Brglez further stated that the expulsion precipitated after allegations surfaced that he was considering a self-candidacy for a second speakership term (which Brglez denied) that enraged Cerar (who was purportedly also vying for the post), and that the expulsion was concocted by Cerar, who orchestrated it with a bottom-up reshuffling of willing party functionaries so as to enable the expulsion. Brglez had been known to quarrel with Cerar about government policy during Cerar's premiership, with Cerar calling on Brglez to resign on one occasion, though the two later partially reconciled.
On 2019 party congress Zdravko Počivalšek was elected a new president of the party.
Following the negotiation to form a
14th Government under premiership of
Janez Janša
Ivan Janša (; born 17 September 1958), baptized and best known as Janez Janša (), is a Slovenian politician who served three times as a prime minister of Slovenia, a position he had held from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013, and from 2020 to 2 ...
, which SMC would join, founder and former president
Miro Cerar
Miroslav Cerar Jr. (, known as Miro Cerar ;) is a Slovenian law professor and politician. He was Prime Minister of Slovenia, leading the 12th Government. He served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the 13th Government ...
left the party saying that it no longer "pursued its founding values" and called on other party members to do the same.
On 26 march
Janja Sluga
Janja (Cyrillic: Јања) is a town in the municipality of Bijeljina, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Janja is located in the Podrinje region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Janja is famous for the rivers Janja and Drina. It is the only Bo ...
,
Igor Zorčič
Igor Zorčič (born 9 January 1978) is a Slovenian politician who has been Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia since 2020.
Biography
A lawyer by profession, Zorčič entered the Party of Miro Cerar in 2014 and was elected MP in 2014 a ...
and
Branislav Rajić Branislav () is a Czech, Croatian, Russian, Slovak, Serbian, Slovene and Ukrainian given name. It also appears in Polish as Bronisław, in Russian as ''Bronislav,'' and Ukrainian as ''Boronyslav.'' The name is derived from the Slavic elements bran ...
left the party and announced that they are working on forming a new parliamentary group with
Jurij Lepi that is to be led by Janja Sluga.
On 4 December 2021, SMC merged with a non-parliamentary Economic Active Party to form a new party,
Concretely
Concretely ( sl, Konkretno) is a liberal political party in Slovenia led by former Minister of Economical Development and Techonolgy Zdravko Počivalšek. Founding congress took place on 4 December 2021 in Celje. Concretly is a result of a mer ...
.
With this, SMC's membership in
ALDE was automatically terminated.
Ideology
The party's initial focus was the "rule of law, liberalising the economy and improving the efficiency of the public sector".
Cerar also voiced support for "liberalising the economy and labour market rules, cutting red tape and selling off smaller state firms", but offered few policy details before the party's premiere election.
Electoral results
National Assembly
European Parliament
Presidential
References
External links
*
{{Slovenian political parties
2014 establishments in Slovenia
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties
Centrist parties in Slovenia
Liberal International
Liberal parties in Slovenia
Political parties established in 2014
Social liberal parties
Pro-European political parties in Slovenia