Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia

DeSUS was founded in 1991 and first entered the National Assembly of Slovenia after the 1996 Slovenian parliamentary election. Since that election, DeSUS has been a member of every government coalition with the exception of the brief Bajuk minority government which lasted from June to November of 2000. From May 2005 until 2020 the party was led by Karl Erjavec who served in various ministerial positions for most of those 15 years, making him almost synonymous with the party itself as well as one of the most recognisable politicians in Slovenia. At the party congress in January 2020 he was defeated by Agriculture minister Aleksandra Pivec who therby assumed the leadership of the party.[6] Upon his loss Erjavec announced he would be leaving politics, but remain an active DeSUS member. After the resignation of the Marjan Šarec minority government, DeSUS opted to form a new government with former prime minister Janez Janša with Pivec continuing on in her current ministerial position. The decision came as a surprise to some as during the latter years under Erjavec the party had been taking an increasingly oppositional stance towards Janša and SDS, despite having taken part in Janša's 1st (2004-2008) and 2nd (2012-2013) governments, having gone as far as to explicitly campaign on an anti-Janša platform during the 2018 parliamentary election.

After the party's entry into Janša's 3rd government the divisions within the party became increasingly public, culminating in all 5 of the party's MPs as well as Health minister Tomaž Gantar calling for the resignation of Aleksandra Pivec in August 2020.[7] During the summer Pivec had become embroiled in a series of allegations of corruption and inappropriate behavoir after making visits to a winery and the coastal town of Izola, the costs of which were covered by the private company Vina Kras and the Izola municipal government.[8][9] This culminated in a public media spat between Pivec and the DeSUS parliamentary group with Pivec alleging she was being undermined by underground elements of the party and its former leader Karl Erjavec. The situation further escalated as various regional party branches voted to either support Pivec or call for her dismissal. As the national party council under the direction of Tomaž Gantar prepared to convene and vote on a motion of no confidence against Pivec and a motion to dismiss her from her position, she announced that such a dismissal would be illegitimate (as she believed only the national party congress could remove the party leader) and that she was prepared to fight it. A motion of no confidence was passed by the DeSUS national council on August 22, 2020. The vote for her dismissal was scheduled on September 9th, but Pivec resigned just before it took place and Gantar took over as acting leader[10] (despite the party's statute putting the three deputy leaders of the party ahead of him in the line of succession). On October 5th she also resigned as Agriculture minister and deputy prime minister as the National Assembly was set to remove her from these functions. She has since left DeSUS but vowed to remain in politics.[11]

At the December 2020 party congress Karl Erjavec once again became party president.[12]

Parliamentary representation:

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Government
1996	46, 152	4.32	5 / 90	5	6th	Coalition, 1997–2000
						Opposition, 2000
2000	55,634	5.1	4 / 90	1	6th	Coalition
2004	39,150	4.0	4 / 90	0	7th	Coalition
2008	78,353	7.4	7 / 90	3	4th	Coalition
2011	76,853	6.9	6 / 90	1	5th	Coalition
2014	88,968	10.1	10 / 90	4	3rd	Coalition
2018	43,889	4,9	5 / 90	5	8th	Coalition, 2018–2020
						Opposition, 2020–

• Official website