Slovenian elections: narrow lead for PM Golob
After a tense neck-and-neck race, Prime Minister Robert Golob's ruling party has won the parliamentary elections in Slovenia. However, its razor-thin lead against Janez Janša's right-wing conservative SDS party is not enough to secure a majority for the current centre-left coalition.
An Americanised election campaign
Primorske novice laments that so much attention was given to the rivalry between the two leading candidates:
“Instead of comparing election manifestos, there were personal attacks and old animosities. Instead of arguments, there were accusations; instead of the future, the past. The Slovenian political arena is moving closer to the US model of permanent conflict between Republicans and Democrats in which politics becomes less and less about advancing the common good and more and more a stage for identity struggles. … [In view of the huge challenges], steering the new government will be as tricky as navigating the Strait of Hormuz. So the country simply cannot afford to have its course determined by an old feud between two politicians.”
Clear swing to the right
Economics professor Jože P. Damijan gives the following assessment:
“The election results indicate a clear swing to the right of the political spectrum. ... The numbers are even more dramatic than the polls had suggested. While in the 2022 elections the parties of the centre-left emerged markedly stronger, the data for 2026 indicate a significant strengthening of the centre-right bloc and a simultaneous weakening of the centre-left. The shift is not only relevant for calculating how to form a coalition, but it will directly impact priorities for the nation's development, its investment climate and its public policy.”