Presenting the reasons for the no-confidence vote in the name of those sponsoring the motion, Jožef Horvat from the NSi party reviewed the main accusation against foreign minister Karl Erjavec - that he led "an improvised, inconsistent, unclear, unprincipled, incomprehensible and static foreign policy". Horvat, who is also the head of the parliamentary foreign policy committee, called on MPs to dismiss the minister, as: "... we do not wish to have a foreign policy of Karel Erjavec, but a foreign policy of Slovenia.".
The Slovenian foreign minister rejected the accusations at the no-confidence session as empty and without any content. Erjavec is convinced that the vote was more of a personal attack on him, rather than a criticism of Slovenia's foreign policy. He warned that the country's foreign policy is put together by a number of key players and not just the minister. Erjavec added that among those players is also the parliamentary foreign policy committee and that its president Horvat has up to now never questioned Slovenia's foreign policy.
A first no-confidence motion for Erjavec
This was the first no-confidence motion against Erjavec, who has been foreign minister since 2012 in three governments - in the governments headed by Janez Janša, Alenka Bratušek and now Miro Cerar. This was only the second no-confidence session against a minister in Cerar's government. The first took place in September and targeted the Minister of the Interior Vesna Györkös Žnidar.