Civic List (Slovenia)

Civic List (Slovene: Državljanska lista, DL) was a classical-liberal[4] extra-parliamentary political party in Slovenia, led by Gregor Virant.

[7] Until April 2012 the party was named Gregor Virant's Civic List (Državljanska lista Gregorja Viranta, LGV).

[11] When the party was formed, some of the prominent members were economist Janez Šušteršič, former director of the Slovenian governmental Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development between 2001 and 2007, former chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition Jani Soršak, former Minister of Transport and former vice-president of the National Assembly Marko Pavliha (who had been a member of the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia between 2004 and 2007).

The Slovenian Democratic Party, with which Virant cooperated closely in the past, though without ever being a member, called his action "unfair and treacherous".

[16] The new party gained significant public support even before it was officially chartered, placing among the top three in an opinion poll by the newspaper Delo[17] and three other organizations.

The fall of support was correlated with the scandal over Gregor Virant's high unemployment benefits in the year after his term as Minister of Public Administration expired.

On the other hand, it was also criticized by some left-liberal columnists, especially in regards to its neoliberal economics programme and its ambiguous positions on issues such as LGBT rights.