Cerar explained that he had resigned due to bad relations within the coalition between the Social Democrats (SD) and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS) following a decision of the Supreme Court earlier that day, which he stated would slow down the infrastructural development of Slovenia due to strikes and demands of public sector trade unions.

[5][6] According to the Constitution, regularly scheduled elections should have been held no sooner than two months and no later than 15 days before the expiry of four years from the first session of current National Assembly.

The Modern Centre Party (SMC) also called for elections to be held at a later date due to the ongoing procedure to adopt a constitutional law protecting the country's biggest bank, NLB, from Croatian actions in violation of international agreement between the countries as well as the upcoming process before the European Court of Justice on arbitration between Slovenia and Croatia.

[8] On the same day, independent MP Janko Veber announced that he would try and nominate himself for the position of interim Prime Minister, though none of the political parties expressed its support.

Some current politicians are expected to be charged with responsibility for the scandals, including Janez Janša (SDS) and Borut Pahor (SD).

[10][8] On 14 April 2018, after no candidate for the Prime Minister was nominated, President Pahor dissolved the National Assembly and decided elections will be held on 3 June 2018.

[1] The Italian minority representative in the National Assembly, Roberto Battelli, who has held the post for seven consecutive terms and was the only one to hold this position so far, announced on 16 March 2018 that he would not run again in the following elections.

On that day Simona Kustec Lipicer MP, leader of the SMC in the National Assembly announced that she would not run again in the 2018 elections.

[19][20][21] On 24 April 2018, Slovenian media reported that Matej Tonin (NSi) possess documents that prove that foreign minister Karl Erjavec (DeSUS) has worked for Croatia during Arbitration between the countries.

The main topics of the campaign were relations with Croatia (arbitration, NLB), the public healthcare system, banks and corruption, hate speech, level of minimum wage and pensions, level of poverty and foreign policy and positioning of Slovenia in the international community, especially relations with the United States.

It also reported that the Social Democrats and the party Andrej Čuš and the Greens of Slovenia (AČZS) had put the same candidate on their lists.

Media stressed that two of the four members of the DVK who voted to reject the list were appointed by Social Democrats and SDP (which is the former party of Andrej Čuš).

[27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Janez Janša, came to stump with Janša in mid-May at a rally in Celje, declaring: "If Europe surrenders to mass population movement and immigration, our own Continent will be lost [...] The aim is to settle among us people who do not belong to our culture, and who will want to live here according to their own religions and customs".

Lucija Ušaj and Žan Mahnič MP, both SDS and candidates in the elections, were exposed because of their activity on Twitter, where they frequently publish statements that can arguably be recognized as hate speech against homosexuals, migrants, Muslims, or political opponents.

SMC, SDS, DeSUS, SD, Levica, NSi, SAB, AČZS, DD and Unity are currently represented in the National Assembly.

Several former MPs returned to parliament, including Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti (SNS) and Brane Golubović (LMŠ, previously PS).

[88] The return of SNS after 7 years of absence was viewed as a side-effect of the nationalist rhetoric in the media while Jelinčič publicly stated that he was interested in joining some government as a minister of culture.

[90] Several international media, including BBC, CNBC and Al Jazeera, reported on the election result, labelling SDS as "anti-immigration" party[91][92][93] and noted that a formation of a stable government will be difficult.

The New York Times highlighted Janša's connection to Viktor Orbán, the PM of Hungary, who openly supported SDS, including with Hungarian companies financing the pro-SDS media.

In SMC, there were also some internal dissents when party named Igor Zorčič as leader instead of Milan Brglez, who wanted the position himself.

On 3 June, he repeated his statement and Janez Janša was granted a mandate to form a coalition government, the third time he had the opportunity to do so, after 2004 and 2012.

[99] However, all of the centre-left and left-wing parties (LMŠ, SD, SMC, the Left, SAB and DeSUS) publicly declared that they would not join a government under Janša and the SDS, meaning Janša could only form a minority right-wing government with NSi and SNS, with the support of either LMŠ, SD, SMC or the Left, or court both DeSUS and the centrist list of Alenka Bratušek, in order to win a majority.

[99] A centre-to-centre-left government under the leadership of Marjan Šarec was considered more likely to be formed, consisting of LMŠ, SD, SMC, SAB, DeSUS and NSi or the Left, though NSi was seen as more likely to be invited to join the coalition due to the requirement of the Left for any coalition agreements to include a referendum on NATO membership, something strongly opposed by all other parties.

Dejan Židan (SD) stated that he expected that leaders of the parliamentary groups prepare the outlining of a coalition agreement before meeting with President Pahor to consult about granting Šarec the mandate.

Janša also did not explicitly rule out the possibility to stand down as potential prime minister-designate and let someone else from his party take the post and form a government.

[105] On 26 June Executive Committee of the Modern Centre Party (SMC) expelled Milan Brglez from the party in a unanimous decision for that his self-candidature for Speaker of the National Assembly, since Miro Cerar did not have support of potential coalition partners (LMŠ, SD, NSi, SAB and DeSUS) to become Speaker himself.

As example they added that Cerar supported US missile strikes against Syria earlier in April, while Brglez did not, stating that these acts are against international law and Slovenia's constitution.

[106] On 2 July President Borut Pahor began the first round of consultations with leaders of the political groups in the National Assembly.

Brane Golubović (LMŠ) asked President Pahor if he would make another round of consultations on Friday and that they would support giving the mandate to Janez Janša first.

[111] On 2 August, Miro Cerar sent a message to members of SMC in which he expressed his doubt about stability of a minority government that could be formed, however he still stressed that they support Šarec as new Prime Minister.