An Actor Has Become Prime Minister

After two months, Slovenia finally got a mandate for the composition of the 13th Slovenian government.

This means that we have a Prime Minister, but not [yet] the ministers who will take care of certain areas, such as education and health.

The Prime Minister is the leaders of the LMŠ, Marjan Šarec. He got the votes of 55 out of 90 MPs from various political parties in the Parliament.

These MPS were elected in June by those adults who went to the polls.

Most voters supported the SDS, led by Janez Janša.

Janša could not collect enough votes from the MPs to get a mandate to form a government. He needed 46. But most of the parties that came to Parliament did not want the SDS to lead the country.

Instead, they supported Marjan Šarec, who took second place with his party in the elections.

Marjan Šarec is the former Mayor of Kamnik. Last year he ran for President. He came second and then decided to run for Prime Minister in the elections.

But he did not always want to become a politician. He first studied to be a carpenter, joined the volunteer firefighters, and completed his studies in drama.

His election proves that the most important issues in the country can also be managed by someone who does not have much political experience.

This is allowed by a political system called parliamentary democracy. In this, any adult citizen can establish a party and run for election.

Marjan Šarec announced that he would first take care of shortening waiting times for doctors. If he succeeds, we will wait less time for many medical examinations.

Point to Consider

1. What would be your message to the prime minister?
2. What do you want to become when you grow up?
3. Why do politicians sometimes fail to agree on something?

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The original version of this article was published on August 20th.

English translation courtesy of JL Flanner, Total Slovenia News, an English language website with news from and about Slovenia.