Slovenia, a step away from elections due to failure in government formation talks

BarcelonaSlovenia is entering a period of political uncertainty. The talks of the liberal Robert Golob, winner of the March elections, with various parties to form a coalition government have not been successful. Golob himself announced this Monday that his party is renouncing the formation of a government. In this way, the ultraconservative admirer of Trump and critic of the European Union Janez Janša, who came second in the elections held in March, now has an opportunity to form a government. Should he or any other candidate succeed, the country will return to the polls.

"We impatiently look forward to working in opposition." This is how Golob stated the failure of the talks this Monday. The liberal won the March elections by a narrow margin. His party, the Freedom Movement (GS), secured 29 seats, while the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by Janša, obtained 28 deputies. All eyes are now on the ultraconservative, who already governed the country between 2020 and 2022 and had been Minister of Defense in the 1990s.

However, Janša has assured that he is in no hurry to try to form an executive: "We can calmly wait in opposition while those who have caused this chaos deal with it." Although he has assured that he could form a government "from tomorrow," Janša himself has ruled it out for now and has shown himself open to repeating the elections. Already during the election campaign, he warned that he would not govern if he did not have a comfortable majority, and for now, he does not have clear support from other parties to achieve it.

Accusations of interference

Upon winning the elections, Golob, who had been governing the country since 2022, assured that during his "next term" he would work for "a better future for everyone". "All of you who voted have cast your vote for democracy, not just for the Freedom Movement," Golob said. For his part, Janša already pointed to the difficult governability of the country that the results left. "Slovenia deserves stability, but I doubt it will achieve it given the results," he said on election night.

Then, the elections were marked by a tense political atmosphere in the country, with accusations of corruption and foreign interference. Slovenian authorities accused Black Cube, a private intelligence agency from Israel, of trying to favor Janša and destabilize Golob, and pointed to alleged cases of corruption in his government.