Slovenia's political survivor Janez Jansa is back

Janez Jansa is the great survivor of Slovenian politics. He served as defense minister in Slovenia 's first independent government in 1991 and is now back in the prime minister's office for the fourth time.

Appointed on May 22, he is already stirring up controversy, both historical — over the treatment of Nazi collaborators summarily executed at the end of World War II — and current, with tax cuts trade unions say will further enrich the already wealthy to the detriment of public services.

His right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) consistently commands around a quarter of the vote in parliamentary elections. Moreover, unlike parties on the center-left, it has been a permanent fixture on Slovenia's political scene for more than three decades.

That combination of staying power, organization and experience has been the key to Jansa forming a new governing coalition, even though the SDS finished second to the center-left Freedom Movement in March's parliamentary election .

Former Prime Minister Robert Golob was found wanting when it came to making the deals that would have kept him in government.

"He was absolutely in a position to build a coalition of the center-left and a little bit of the right, but he lacked the skills and abilities to do it," said Ali Zerdin, editor of the weekend supplement of Slovenia's best-selling newspaper, Delo .

"On the other side, we have the veteran of Slovenian politics, Janez Jansa. He knows all the tricks to build a coalition necessary to run Slovenia," Zerdin told DW.

The composition of the new government, which was approved by the Slovenian parliament on Thursday (June 4), has raised plenty of eyebrows.