New Slovenia – Christian Democrats ( sl, Nova Slovenija – Krščanski demokrati, NSi) is a

Christian-democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

political party in Slovenia. Since 2018, it is led by

Matej Tonin Matej Tonin (born 30 June 1983) is a Slovenian politician. Tonin graduated from political sciences at the University of Ljubljana in 2007. A member of the New Slovenia (NSi) party, he was seen as one of the key people that helped the party win s ...

. The party was formed on 4 August 2000 following a split in the unified Slovenian People's Party and Slovene Christian Democrats (SLS+SKD). NSi is a member of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

(EPP) and in the European Parliament its MEP Ljudmila Novak sits with the

EPP Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent ME ...

. At the most recent Slovenian parliamentary election in 2022, NSi secured 6.86% of all votes, thus gaining 8 seats in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the rep ...

History

Establishment

In July 2000,

Andrej Bajuk Andrej Bajuk, also known in Spanish as Andrés Bajuk (18 October 1943 – 16 August 2011) was a Slovene politician and economist. He served briefly as Prime Minister of Slovenia in the year 2000, and was Minister of Finance in the centre-right g ...

, by the time Prime Minister of a centre-right coalition government, and other centrist Christian democrats disagreed with the rest of the

Slovenian People's Party The Slovenian People's Party ( sl, Slovenska ljudska stranka, , Slovene abbreviation SLS ) is a conservative, agrarian, Christian-democratic political party in Slovenia. Formed in 1988 under the name of Slovenian Peasant Union as the first democ ...

(SLS+SKD) over the question of a new electoral system. While Bajuk wanted the National Assembly to abandon

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, the SLS+SKD party voted against any changes. Therefore, Bajuk retired from the party and created New Slovenia as his Prime Ministerial vehicle. Other former members of the

Slovene Christian Democrats The Slovene Christian Democrats ( sl, Slovenski krščanski demokrati, SKD) was a Christian-democratic political party in Slovenia between 1989 and 2000. It was founded as the Slovene Christian Social Movement in March 1989. Its first president w ...

opposed to the merger of SKD and SLS, followed the foundation appeal. In the October 2000 parliamentary election, the new party won 8.6% of the vote and eight seats. Thereupon, Bajuk resigned as Prime Minister and New Slovenia went into opposition.

Since 2004

From 2004 to 2008, New Slovenia was part of the centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister

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 ...

. The first

European Parliament election Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's. Unti ...

with Slovenian participation in 2004 was won by New Slovenia which received 24% of the votes and secured two of the seven Slovenian seats. At the 2008 legislative elections, the party won only 3.4% of the popular vote and did not win any seats in the 90-seat

. After the elective failure of 2008, Bajuk announced his immediate resignation and retirement from politics. Ljudmila Novak succeeded him as party president. At the

2011 Slovenian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 4 December 2011 to elect the 90 deputies of the National Assembly. This was the first early election in Slovenia's history. The election was surprisingly won by the center-left Positive Slovenia par ...

on 4 December 2011, it won 4.88% of votes, thus gaining four seats in the National Assembly. In the 2014 European election, NSi ran in a joint electoral list with the

, which received 16.56% of the vote and came in second place, returning 2 MEPs. The party received 5.53% of the vote in the Slovenian parliamentary election on 13 July 2014, and won 5 seats in parliament. At the 2018 Parliamentary election, NSi received 7.16% of electoral votes, which resulted in 7 parliamentary seats. The party was in opposition until March 2020, when it entered a centre-right coalition with SDS, SMC and DeSUS. NSi's Ljudmila Novak was elected as one of 8 MEPs of Slovenia at the 2019 European election. Since the Slovenian parliamentary election in 2022, NSi holds 8 seats in the National Assembly. It is currently in opposition.

Ideology

New Slovenia has taken a staunchly Christian conservative position on some issues, advocating traditional social values and defending the position of the Catholic Church on moral questions. It has also been opposed to

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

and adoption by same sex couples, although it does support (and it also voted for) the current legislation, which gives certain rights to registered same sex couples. In economic issues, it is generally liberal, but it defends a

social market economy The social market economy (SOME; german: soziale Marktwirtschaft), also called Rhine capitalism, Rhine-Alpine capitalism, the Rhenish model, and social capitalism, is a socioeconomic model combining a free-market capitalist economic system alon ...

. It is a decidedly pro-European party. In 2019, party leader Matej Tonin announced that the party would reposition itself in the political centre while refreshing its programme. Tonin reiterated its commitment to social market economy.

Electoral results

National Assembly

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European Parliament

Presidential

Prominent members

(deceased in 2011) *

Lojze Peterle Alojz "Lojze" Peterle (born 5 July 1948) is a Slovenian politician. He is a member of New Slovenia, part of the European People's Party. He served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 1990 to 1992, Leader of the Christian Democrats from the found ...

* Ljudmila Novak * Lovro Šturm * Jure Zupan * Mojca Kucler Dolinar * Janez Drobnič (left the party in 2008) * Andrej Capuder *

* Slavoj Žižek *

Melania Trump Melania Trump ( ; born Melanija Knavs , Germanized as Melania Knauss ; born April 26, 1970) is a Slovene-American former model and businesswoman who served as First Lady of the United States from 2017 to 2021 as the wife of 45th president Do ...

References

External links

Official site
{{European People's Party 2000 establishments in Slovenia Christian democratic parties in Europe Catholic political parties Conservative parties in Slovenia Member parties of the European People's Party Organizations based in Ljubljana Political parties established in 2000 Pro-European political parties in Slovenia