Parliamentary elections are taking place in Slovenia this Sunday. Polling stations across the country opened at 7 a.m. The polls have highlighted the vote-out of the centre-right government of right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose two-year reign has been criticized as authoritarian. The left-liberal anti-Jansa camp has excellent prospects of victory. The new head of government is to be political career changer Robert Golob.
The election race should remain exciting until the end. On the one hand, the polls indicate a head-to-head race for first place between Jansa’s right-wing conservative SDS and Golob’s green-liberal freedom movement (Gibanje Svoboda). Also uncertain is the battle for the rear seats, which will be even more important for the majority.
The freedom movement was slightly ahead of the SDS in forecasts, so both parties should count on me for around a quarter of the votes. In addition to the SDS, three parties out of a total of nine parliamentary parties can certainly count on entering parliament. Two opposition parties, the Social Democrats (SD) and the Left (Levica), as well as the co-governing Christian Democratic NSI (New Slovenia) should easily get over the four percent hurdle for entry into parliament.
Behind them the race is still open. The liberal LMS (list of ex-Prime Minister Marjan Šarec) and the social-liberal party of ex-Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek (SAB) wavered in the last few days before the election between moving back in and being thrown out, but the forecasts recently showed that they would might make it into Parliament. The two parties have so far formed an anti-Jansa block in the opposition together with the SD and the left. It is also likely to be tight for the smallest coalition party, the liberal Konkretno, which is running in the electoral alliance “Let’s unite Slovenia”.
Golob’s freedom movement, which has already spoken out in favor of cooperation with the opposition anti-Jansa block, should find it easier to form a coalition. On the other hand, Jansa is likely to have the same problems as four years ago when, despite winning the election, he was unable to put together a government due to a lack of partners. He only came to power in the spring of 2020, when ex-Prime Minister Sarec’s left-liberal minority government collapsed in the middle of the legislative period.
The Corona protest party Resnica (truth) might cause a surprise. It is not excluded that the party, which led mass protests once morest the Corona measures last autumn, might still make it into parliament. The Pirate Party is also likely to land not far from the four percent hurdle.
A significantly higher voter turnout is expected than in the 2018 elections, when it was 52.6 percent. Experts expect that it will definitely be over 60 percent. The polling stations are open until 7 p.m. Exit poll results are published immediately following the polls close.
