In July 2000, Andrej Bajuk, by the time Prime Minister of a centre-right coalition government, and other centrist Christian democrats disagreed with the rest of the Slovenian People's Party over the question of a new electoral system. While Bajuk wanted the National Assembly to abandon proportional representation, the SLS+SKD party voted against any changes. Therefore, Bajuk retired from the party and created New Slovenia as his Prime Ministerial vehicle. Other former members of the Slovene Christian Democrats opposed to the merger of SKD and SLS, followed the foundation appeal. In the October 2000 parliamentary election, the new party won 8.6% of the vote and eight seats. Thereupon, Bajuk resigned as Prime Minister and New Slovenia went into opposition.
Since 2004
From 2004 to 2008, New Slovenia was part of the centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister Janez Janša. The first European Parliament election with Slovenian participation in 2004 was won by New Slovenia which received 24% of the votes and secured two of the seven Slovenian seats. At the 2008 legislative elections, the party won only 3.4% of the popular vote and did not win any seats in the 90-seat National Assembly. After the elective failure of 2008, Bajuk announced his immediate resignation and retirement from politics. Ljudmila Novak succeeded him as party president. At the 2011 Slovenian parliamentary election on 4 December 2011, it won 4.88% of votes, thus gaining four seats in the National Assembly. In the 2014 European election, NSi ran in a joint electoral list with the Slovenian People's Party, which received 16.56% of the vote and came in second place, returning 2 MEPs. The party received 5.53% of the vote in the Slovenian parliamentary election on 13 July 2014, and won 5 seats in parliament.
Ideology
New Slovenia has taken a staunchly Christian conservative position on some issues, advocating traditional social values and defending the position of the Catholic Church on moral questions. It has also been opposed to same-sex marriage and adoption by same sex couples, although it does support the current legislation, which gives certain rights to registered same sex couples. In economic issues, it is generally liberal, but it defends a social market economy. It is a decidedly pro-European party. In 2019, party leader Matej Tonin announced that the party would reposition itself in the political centre while refreshing its programme. Tonin reiterated its commitment to social market economy.
