Slovenia centrists win national election, defeating right-wing populist incumbent

(Image credit: Luka Dakskobler/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)

published 25 April 2022

Slovenia's opposition Freedom Movement party won the largest share of the vote in Sunday's election, beating right-wing populist Prime Minister Janez Jansa's Slovenian Democratic Party by about 10 percentage points and making Freedom Movement leader Robert Golob the likely next prime minister.

Jansa is an effusive admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump and a key ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Slovenia's election was "a noteworthy test for the appeal of right-wing populism" in Europe, The New York Times reports, and Jansa's evident defeat, along with Marine Le Pen's loss in France on Sunday, was a "significant setback" for "Europe's once surging movement of nationalist populists."

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Turnout was a higher-than-usual 67 percent of eligible voters, versus 52 percent in the 2018 election that gave Jensa his plurality. With more than 97 percent of votes tallied in Sunday's election, the centrist Freedom Movement won about 34 percent of the vote, followed by the Slovenian Democratic Party's 24 percent. Golob, a former energy executive and political newcomer, should be able to form a government with a constellation of leftist groups that won single-digit shares of the vote.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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