Slovenia’s Populist Prime Minister Loses National Election

Slovenia’s populist Prime Minister Janez Jansa lost a national election on Sunday as the environmentalist Freedom Movement party won more votes than his SDS party, according to preliminary figures from election authorities.

Jansa, who had hoped to win a fourth term in office, conceded that he had been defeated in the vote, adding however that his SDS party had secured more votes than ever before.

The election had been expected to be tight but the official preliminary figures showed the Freedom Movement, a newcomer in the election, leading with 34.34% of the vote, far more than expected, while the SDS secured 23.83%, based on 98.20% of counted ballots.

This would give the Freedom Movement, which campaigned on a transition to green energy, an open society and the rule of law, 40 seats in the 90-seat parliament, and the SDS 28 seats.

The election commission said the turnout in the vote, in which some 1.7 million people were eligible to cast their ballots in the small Alpine country that is a member of the European Union and the NATO military alliance, was 68%,

Experts said that was well above the national average.

Freedom Movement, which was formed last year, is led by Robert Golob, a former executive of a state-owned energy company that launched green energy projects.

In order to form a government, it is expected to form a coalition with the left-leaning Social Democrats and Left parties, which are currently set to have together 12 seats in parliament.