Ruling Liberals set to win parliamentary election

The ruling liberal Freedom Movement of Prime Minister Robert Golob is on track to win Slovenia’s parliamentary election on Sunday, according to an exit poll published by public broadcaster TV Slovenia and commercial Pop TV, which shows that it won 29.9% of the vote.

Meanwhile, the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by populist Janez Jansa, is set to come in second with 27.5% of the vote, according to the poll.

The Slovenian parliamentary elections is an important race that will determine whether the small EU nation of 2 million people maintains its liberal course or whether illiberal right-wing populists like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Slovakia’s Robert Fico will get added support within the bloc. 

Who is in contention

Sunday’s vote largely pits incumbent Prime Minister Robert Golob and his liberal Freedom Movement party against Janez Jansa, a three-time Slovenian prime minister, and his right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).

As the vote looks to be exceedingly close, with neither camp projected to win a clear majority in Slovenia’s 90-member parliament, small parties will be key to either side’s ability to put together a governing coalition.

The vote is also key for the 27-member European Union (EU), with Golob and his government being voices for the bloc’s majority liberal agenda, and Jansa and the SDS on the other hand backing Orban and emulating the political style of US President Donald Trump — for whom Jansa has expressed great admiration. 

Slovenia has routinely swung back and forth between these two blocks since breaking away from the former, Communist-run Yugoslavia in 1991.

Slovenia joined both the EU and NATO in 2004.

Allegations of foreign election interference 

In the run-up to the vote, allegations of foreign election interference made headlines in Slovenia, with Jansa being accused of hiring a private Israeli intelligence outfit named Black Cube to aid his election effort.

The claims, first leveled by journalists and activists, say Jansa and Black Cube were behind a string of videos designed to sway the election by purportedly documenting government corruption. 

Jansa, who faced accusations of curtailing press freedoms and undermining the rule of law during his last term in office, has regularly railed against Golob’s government, calling it a “crime syndicate.”

Jansa has admitted contacts with Black Cube but has denied all election interference allegations.

On Thursday, Robert Golob called for an EU investigation of the matter while speaking at a Brussels summit.

“It is so important, not to act now on behalf of Slovenia, but to act now to protect every other state that will come into election process in the next months,” he said. “I am absolutely confident that Slovenian voters will be able to recognize that foreign interference is something that shall never be allowed.”

Slovenian authorities say Black Cube operatives visited the capital Ljubljana four times during the campaign and that they had been in the street that houses SDS headquarters during that time.

Black Cube, which is run by two former Mossad agents, has not responded to the allegations. 

The company says it operates in a legal and ethical manner but it has also been embroiled in controversy in the past, for instance, for its involvement in attempting to discredit individuals accusing disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse.

Edited by: Kieran Burke