with the Social Democrats considering the new parties as serious competitors while Zares, Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, and Slovenian National Party welcomed the new political programs, offering a more diverse choice at the election. 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 and three other organizations. According to an opinion poll released soon after the announcement of the new party, Virant was seen as the most appropriate choice for prime minister by the plurality of voters. In the first weeks, of the electoral campaign, the party polled very high results, placing it among the top three, together with the Slovenian Democratic Party and Positive Slovenia. During the course of the electoral campaign, however, the support of the party fell dramatically. 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. The party also came under heavy attack of the conservative media, considered close to the Slovenian Democratic Party (especially the weekly magazines Reporter and Demokracija). 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. In the 2011 election, the party gained 8.37% of the vote, far behind its initial polls, and was placed fourth, after Positive Slovenia, the Slovenian Democratic Party and the Social Democrats. On 24 April 2012, the party renamed itself and reelected Gregor Virant as its president. It also reelected Janez Šušteršič and elected Aleksandra Markovič Predan as its vice-presidents. The party became a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) on 9 November 2012. In 2012, the party supported the bailout of banks that came close to bankruptcy during the financial crisis. The bank bailout law was introduced by a party member, finance minister Janez Šušteršič. After party received only 1.2% of votes in 2014 European Parliament election, Virant resigned as party president. He was temporarily replaced by vice-president Saša Markovič. On 9 June 2014 Bojan Starman was elected as the new president of the party. The party received 0.63% of the vote in the Slovenian parliamentary election on 13 July 2014, and did not win any seats in parliament. Their website was last