The newly founded liberation movement (Gibanje svoboda) won a landslide victory in Slovenian parliamentary elections. This is demonstrated by a post-election poll that was published by the TV channel RTV Slovenija on the Sunday night after the elections ended. Thus, the movement of former director Robert Golob reached almost 36% of the vote. Prime Minister Janez Janša’s conservative Democratic Party (SDS) finished in second place with less than 23 percent.
Immediately after the end of the election, the vice-president of the SDS, Aleš Hojs, admitted the defeat of the hitherto largest parliamentary party. “We have to congratulate the relative winner of the election,” said Hojs. “Apparently people have put their faith in a new face again,” he said, referring to the former head of Slovenia’s biggest energy supply company, Gen-I, Robert Golob, who only entered Slovenian politics in January. . His deputy Marta Kos was initially “surprised” by the result, which was not expected to be so clear.
The Golob election winner addressed his supporters via a video link due to a corona infection. “Today people dance. Tomorrow is a new day and from tomorrow we will work hard to justify the trust,” said the 55-year-old. The high turnout shows “that people really want change. People trust that only we can make those changes.”
The latest polls released before Election Day showed a fierce contest between the Freedom Movement and the SDS. According to the post-election survey, only three other parties made it to parliament, namely the Christian Democratic Party “New Slovenia” (NSi), which previously co-ruled, with 6.6 percent, the Social Democrats with 6, 6 percent and the left with 4.4 percent. This reduces the number of parliamentary parties from nine to five.
As several other parties fell short of the 4% barrier, the freedom movement won 42 of the 90 seats in the new parliament. One coalition partner would suffice for an absolute majority. There has not been a bipartisan coalition in Slovenia since the mid-1990s, and at the beginning of the legislative period there was even a five-party minority government. According to the post-election survey, the SDS has 26 terms, NSi eight, SD seven and the left five.
According to the post-election poll, the second strongest parliamentary party to date, the list of former Prime Minister Marjan Šarec (LMŠ), was expelled from parliament, as was the party of former Liberal Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek. (SAT). . The second-strongest party in government, Konkretno, led by Deputy Prime Minister Zdravko Počivalšek, also failed to gain a foothold in parliament, as did the Democratic Pensioners Party (DeSUS), which has consistently won over most left-wing parties and governments. right for more than two decades.
The Janša party has already admitted defeat in the Slovenian election © APA, (c) APA/AFP/JURE MAKOVEC (JURE MAKOVEC)
Although they were clearly decimated, the left and liberal parties were also pleased with the election result. “Today we are on the winning side. There is a shared sense of relief that we have achieved our goal of changing the government,” said SD leader Tanja Fajon. “This government is saying goodbye after a two-year nightmare. This is today’s biggest success,” said former prime minister Šarec.
Four years ago, Janša’s SDS clearly became the strongest force, but was initially held out of power by a left-liberal coalition led by Šarec. He only made a comeback in early 2020. Since then he has polarized the media and the judiciary, which is why his opponents stylized the election as the fatal decision for Slovenian democracy and mobilized it massively. In fact, the participation was significantly higher than in 2018. Janša has been at the head of SDS since 1993, from 2004 to 2008, from 2012 to 2013 and since 2020 he is head of government.
Freedom movement staff were delighted with the election result © AP, (c) AP (Darko Bandic)
Political experts also interpreted the result as a defeat for the anti-Janša opposition bloc. The four left and liberal parties that met in parliament to form the “Coalition of the Constitutional Arch” (KUL) had to lose many sentences. Aside from the Social Democrats and the left, only the LMŠ (3.8% according to the post-election poll) had little chance of remaining in parliament. Like Konkretno (3.2 percent), she had hoped that the 130,000 votes cast in early voting would push her past the four percent barrier. The exit poll was only carried out on Election Sunday, which is why the median polling institute still saw an element of uncertainty in this regard.