The National Assembly (, or ; short form ''državni zbor'') is the general representative body of

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. According to the

Constitution of Slovenia The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia () is the constitution, fundamental law of the Slovenia, Republic of Slovenia. Writing and amendments Preparation of the document began in August 1987 in the Slovene Writers' Association which publishe ...

and the

Constitutional Court of Slovenia The Constitutional Court of Slovenia (in Slovenian language, Slovene: ''Ustavno sodišče Republike Slovenije, US RS'') is a special court established by the Constitution of Slovenia, Slovenian Constitution. Since its inception, the Court has be ...

, it is the major part of the distinctively incompletely

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...

Slovenian Parliament The Slovenian Parliament () is the informal designation of the general representative democracy, representative body of the Slovenian nation and the legislature, legislative body of the Republic of Slovenia. According to the Constitution of Slo ...

, the

legislative branch A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the authority, legal authority to make laws for a Polity, political entity such as a Sovereign state, country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with th ...

of the Republic of Slovenia. It has 90 members, elected for a four-year term. 88 members are elected using the

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

system and the remaining two, using the

Borda count The Borda method or order of merit is a positional voting rule that gives each candidate a number of points equal to the number of candidates ranked below them: the lowest-ranked candidate gets 0 points, the second-lowest gets 1 point, and so on ...

, by the Hungarian and Italian-speaking

ethnic minorities The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

, who have an absolute veto in matters concerning their ethnic groups. As of May 2022, the 9th National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia is in session.

Legislative procedure

A bill can be submitted to the National Assembly by: * the Government * an MP * the National Council * 5,000 voters The legislative procedure begins when the Speaker passes a bill to the MPs. There are three possible legislative procedures: * regular legislative procedure * abbreviated legislative procedure * urgent legislative procedure Bills are normally passed by a majority of the present MPs. If the Constitution demands a two-thirds majority (laws regulating electoral systems, referendums and constitutional laws which amend the Constitution), then at least 60 of the 90 MPs must vote for the bill for passage.

Regular legislative procedure

First reading

The first reading is completed with passing the bill to the MPs by the Speaker, unless ten MPs request a session of the assembly within 15 days to discuss reasons why bill was submitted. If the session is held, the assembly must vote on the resolution if the bill is appropriate for a further procedure. The Speaker determines a working body that will discuss the bill in the further procedure. Other bodies can also discuss the bill if there is such interest, however they cannot vote on it.

Second reading

During the second reading bill is first discussed by the working body that can amend the bill and make a report on the bill which is the basis for the plenary of assembly. Working body discusses and votes on each article of the bill. Assembly later votes and discusses only the articles that were amended during the session of the working body. Assembly and working body can accept a resolution that the bill is not appropriate for a furder procedure if not such resolution was accepted during the first reading.

Third reading

In the third reading working body and assembly vote on the bill as a whole. If it is accepted the bill is sent to the President to sign it.

Shortened legislative procedure

During shortened legislative procedure there is no first reading and the second and third readings are held at the same session. It can be applied for a bills that regulate minor matters, another law is abolished with the bill, if national laws have to be harmonised with

Acquis communautaire The Community acquis or ''acquis communautaire'' (; ), sometimes called the EU acquis, and often shortened to acquis, is the accumulated legislation, legal acts and court decisions that constitute the body of European Union law that came into ...

or when bill regulates procedures before the Constitutional Court or Constitutional Court order changes of the laws.

Urgent legislative procedure

Bill can be passed under urgent procedure if it is important for the security or defence of the country, if it is addressing the consequences of natural disasters or it is proposed to prevent irreversible consequences for the country. There is no first reading, the second and third readings are held at the same session, amendments to the bill can be given orally and timeline of the procedure is shorter.

Suspensive veto

Upon passage of a bill, the National Council can (within two weeks) veto it. An absolute majority of the National Assembly is required to override the veto.

List of speakers of the National Assembly

France Bučar France Bučar (2 February 1923 – 21 October 2015) was a Slovenian politician, legal expert and author. Between 1990 and 1992, he served as the first speaker of the freely elected Slovenian Parliament. He was the one to formally declare the in ...

( SDZ): 9 May 1990 – 23 December 1992
2. Herman Rigelnik ( LDS): 23 December 1992 – 14 September 1994
-- '' Miroslav Mozetič (acting)'' ( SKD): 14 September 1994 - 16 September 1994
3. Jožef Školč (LDS): 16 September 1994 – 3 December 1996
4. Janez Podobnik (

SLS SLS may refer to the Space Launch System, a launch vehicle developed by NASA. It may also refer to: Education * Stanford Law School, California, U.S. * Sydney Law School, Australia * Symbiosis Law School, India * Same language subtitling, of ...

): 3 December 1996 – 27 October 2000
5.

Borut Pahor Borut Pahor (; born 2 November 1963) is a Slovenian politician who served as President of Slovenia from 2012 to 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 2008 to 2012. A longtime member and former president of the Social D ...

( ZLSD): 10 November 2000 – 9 July 2004
-- '' Valentin Pohorec (acting)'' ( DeSUS): 9–12 July 2004
6.

Feri Horvat Feri Horvat (; 26 September 1941 – 1 August 2020) was a Slovenian Management, manager and politician, and one of the founders of the United List of Social Democrats, now known as the Social Democrats (Slovenia), Social Democrats. Between July ...

(ZLSD): 12 July 2004 – 22 October 2004
7. France Cukjati ( SDS): 22 October 2004 – 15 October 2008
8.

Pavel Gantar Pavel Gantar, also known as Pavle Gantar (born 26 October 1949) is a Slovenian politician and sociologist. Between 2008 and 2011, he served as speaker of the Slovenian National Assembly. From February 2012 and to their dissolution in 2015, he ...

( Zares): 15 October 2008 – 2 September 2011
-- '' Vasja Klavora (acting)'' (Desus): 2 September 2011
9.

Ljubo Germič Ljubo Germič (born 19 November 1960) is a Slovenian politician and a former member of the Slovenian National Assembly. After the resignation of Pavel Gantar, Germič was elected the National Assembly (Slovenia), Speaker of the National Assembly ...

(LDS): 2 September 2011 – 21 December 2011
10.

Gregor Virant Gregor Virant (born 4 December 1969) is a Slovenian politician and public servant. Between 2004 and 2008, he served as Minister of Public Administration in Janez Janša's first government, between 2011–2013 he was Speaker of the National Assem ...

( LGV/DL): 21 December 2011 – 28 January 2013
-- '' Jakob Presečnik (acting)'' (SLS): 28 January 2013 – 27 February 2013
11. Janko Veber ( SD): 27 February 2013 – 1 August 2014
12. Milan Brglez ( SMC): 1 August 2014 – 22 June 2018
13. Matej Tonin ( NSi): 22 June 2018 – 23 August 2018
-- '' Tina Heferle (acting)'' ( LMŠ): 23 August 2018
14.

Dejan Židan Dejan Židan () (born 16 October 1967) is a Slovenian politician, former leader of the Social Democrats (Slovenia), Social Democrats, and the former speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia. A veterinarian by education, Židan served as minis ...

(SD): 23 August 2018 – 3 March 2020
-- '' Branko Simonovič (acting)'' (Desus): 3 March 2020 - 5 March 2020
15. Igor Zorčič (SMC): 5 March 2020 - 13 May 2022
16. Urška Klakočar Zupančič (GS): 13 May 2022 - (incumbent)

Electoral system

The 90 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods. 88 are elected by

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a Political party, party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists ...

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

in eight 11-seat

constituencies An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

and seats are allocated to the parties at the constituency level using the

Droop quota In the study of Electoral system, electoral systems, the Droop quota (sometimes called the Eduard Hagenbach-Bischoff, Hagenbach-Bischoff, Britton, or Newland-Britton quota) is the Infimum, minimum number of votes a party or candidate needs to rece ...

. The elected Deputies are identified by ranking all of a party's candidates in a constituency by the percentage of votes they received in their district. The seats that remain unallocated are allocated to the parties at the national level using the

d'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

with an electoral threshold of 4%.National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia
State Election Commission Although the country is divided into 88 electoral districts, deputies are not elected from all 88 districts. More than one deputy is elected in some districts, which results in some districts not having an elected deputy (for instance, 21 of 88 electoral districts did not have an elected deputy in the 2014 elections). Parties must have at least 35% of their lists from each gender, except in cases where there are only three candidates. For these lists, there must be at least one candidate of each gender. Two additional deputies are elected by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and Hungarian minorities. Voters rank all of the candidates on the ballot paper using numbers (1 being highest priority). A candidate is awarded the most points (equal to the number of candidates on the ballot paper) when a voter ranks them first. The candidate with most points wins.

Latest election

Elections of the representatives of national minorities

Italian national minority

Hungarian national minority

Historical composition of the Slovenian National Assembly

Terms

* 1st National Assembly * 2nd National Assembly * 3rd National Assembly * 4th National Assembly * 5th National Assembly * 6th National Assembly * 7th National Assembly * 8th National Assembly

Members

* * * * * * * * List of members of the 8th National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia

Notes

References

External links

* {{Coord, 46, 03, 06, N, 14, 30, 05, E, region:SI-061_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Slovenian Parliament Organizations based in Ljubljana 1992 establishments in Slovenia