A second member of the Slovenian government broke away from the coalition Tuesday over the refusal of Prime Minister Janez Jansa to step down in the wake of corruption allegations against him, dpa reported. Foreign Minister Karel Erjavec, head of the pensioners party DeSUS, said party officials in the government would quit on February 22 and seek an agreement with other parliamentary parties on a new prime minister. That follows the withdrawal of the Civic List (DL), the largest of the four parties with which Jansa's democratic Party (SDS) forged a governing coalition a year ago. With the departure of DL, the cabinet lost its majority in the parliament. The coalition began to crumble when Jansa refused to resign over a January 8 report by the state anti-corruption commission that alleged that he failed to report a 210,000-euro (285,000 dollars) increase of his personal wealth. Though his allies has offered to continue working with the SDS if it appoints a replacement for premier, Jansa insists that he will carry on with a minority cabinet. Last week he took over the finance ministry to help fill the gap created by the departure of DL ministers. In addition to the DeSUS, Jansa faces another defection by the People's Party (SLS), which also said it will leave the alliance, leaving only the smallest of the original junior partners, the New Slovenia alongside the SDS. The runaway coalition partners could form a new majority with the opposition Positive Slovenia party, led by the Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic. However, the same graft report implicated Jankovic, too, alleging that he neither reported nor explained an increase of his wealth by 2.4 million euros. Both Jansa and Jankovic face other corruption-related proceedings. The prime minister has been on trial because of a murky purchase of armoured vehicles for the army, while the mayor is under investigation because of suspicious development deals. DL and DeSUS said the Positive Slovenia party, which won the most votes in snap elections held 14 months ago, would be an acceptable partner to lead a new coalition if Jankovic resigned - but he, too, has refused to take the step. Slovenia needs to continue implementing reforms to save billions of euros in expenditures in order to avoid seeking an EU bailout. Jansa has warned that the country would slide into bankruptcy if early elections were to take place before reforms were carried out. The country has been hit by a series of protests against austerity measures and the perceived widespread corruption of the administration.
