On Wednesday, the National Assembly discussed the proposal for amendments to the Government of the Republic of Slovenia Act, with which the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje svoboda), the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati) and the Left (Levica) are proposing to increase the number of ministries. According to the proposal, which the new parliament voting roller is likely to vote in favour of, our country will have five new ministries. Instead of the current 14, the new coalition believes we need 19.
This will also mean we have the highest number of ministries among the European countries. Considering the fact that we only have 2.1 million inhabitants, this really is an “amazing feat.”
We had the lowest number of ministries during the second Janša government, in 2012, when there were 11 ministries. All governments so far have also had special services headed by the so-called ministers without a portfolio. There were three such ministers in the current government, but in the new one, which will likely be headed by Golob, there will be just one. Everything else was allocated to different ministries. However, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) are expected to oppose the proposed changes for the increase in the number of ministries.
| The number of ministries in European countries | ||
| Country | The number of inhabitants (in millions) | The number of ministries |
| Slovenia | 2.1 | 20 |
| Poland | 38 | 17 |
| France | 67 | 16 |
| The Czech Republic | 10.5 | 16 |
| Croatia | 4.2 | 16 |
| Germany | 81 | 14 |
| Belgium | 10.5 | 13 |
| Finland | 5.6 | 13 |
| Greece | 10.8 | 13 |
| Italy | 61 | 13 |
| The Netherlands | 17 | 13 |
| Austria | 8.5 | 12 |
| Bulgaria | 6.9 | 12 |
| Sweden | 10 | 11 |
| Hungary | 10 | 8 |
| Switzerland | 8 | 7 |
