Slovenians vote in race between pro-Trump nationalist and liberal incumbent

2026.03.22 09:50 Slovenia’s opposition leader and nationalist former Prime Minister Janez Jansa and his wife Urska cast their ballots at a polling station during the general election in Arnace, northern Slovenia, on Sunday. Photo: AFP Polls opened on Sunday in Slovenia’s election pitting incumbent liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob against right-wing populist Janez Janša, with victory and a parliamentary majority out of reach for both in a vote that could be decided by smaller coalition partners. Nearly 1.7 million Slovenians will be ‌able to cast votes at polling stations that opened at 7am across the Alpine country and will close at 7pm. The election commission is expected to announce the preliminary results after 8.30pm. The latest opinion polls indicated Jansa’s pro-Trump Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and Golob’s Freedom Movement (GS) were set for a close race after eleventh-hour campaign drama involving allegations of foreign meddling and corruption. Jansa said the vote is one of the most important in Slovenia’s ⁠35 years of independence, and will decide the future direction of the country. “I hope that Slovenia will get rid of the ‌organised criminal organisation,” he told reporters after casting his vote in the village of Arnace, 85 km northwest of the capital Ljubljana. Analysts say Jansa, who previously served as prime minister three times in the ‌European Union and Nato member state of 2 million people, has a devoted voter base and the ⁠lower the turnout, the higher the ⁠chances of him winning the election. At stake is Slovenia’s domestic and foreign agenda, where the outgoing government had focused on social and health reforms but delivered ‌mixed results. Jansa has promised to introduce tax breaks for businesses and cut funding for civil society, welfare and media. Pro-Israeli Jansa, who is an ally of Hungary’s veteran nationalist ‌Prime Minister Viktor ‌Orban, would also likely change Golob’s foreign policy under which Slovenia was one of the few Eu

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