Slovenia’s National Assembly voted on Friday, May 22, to hand Janez Janša a fourth term as prime minister. He had 51 votes out of the 87 deputies who took part. Politico called him a longtime admirer of US President Donald Trump, and described the result as a new foothold for right-wing populism in Europe, coming a month after Viktor Orbán lost power in Hungary.
How he got there
The March 22 election settled nothing. Robert Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement won 29 seats, while Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) took 28, according to the Rio Times. Golob, who had narrowly come first, then failed to put a government together and went into opposition.
Janša, a veteran of Slovenian politics who was defense minister in the first independent government in 1991, found the votes. “Others have tried to form a majority coalition, but they have failed,” he said on Friday. “We approached it differently, on a programmatic basis, step by step.” Ali Zerdin, an editor at the newspaper Delo, told DW that Golob “lacked the skills and abilities” to assemble a bloc spanning the center-left and a little of the right, while Janša “knows all the tricks”.
A government short of a majority
Parliament approved the cabinet on Thursday, June 4, with 49 votes. The core of 43 seats comes from 28 SDS deputies, nine from a New Slovenia, People’s Party and Focus alliance, and six Democrats. A majority takes 46, so the coalition leans on outside support, including from the Truth party, Resni.ca. Its leader, Zoran Stevanović, is the speaker of the Assembly. DW pointed out that he had signed a pledge not to join a government led by Janša, and that the party’s own platform is anti-vaccination, skeptical of the EU and and wants a vote on NATO membership.
Foreign minister Tone Kajzer, new in the job, tried to calm Brussels. “There is no question that Slovenia would be a troublemaker,” he told DW, adding that his first trips would be to European partners. Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the European Commission, congratulated Janša and said she looked forward to cooperating on common challenges.
At home the mood was less settled. Janša promised a “systematic and boring mandate”, yet his coalition began pushing an omnibus bill with tax cuts that trade unions oppose, along with a law on reburying people killed in post-war reprisals and changes to the Parliamentary Investigation Act. Activists said the amendments could “open the door to the establishment of a political police”.
Sources
- Trump fan Janša wins new term as Slovenia's prime minister (Politico Europe)
- Slovenia's political survivor Janez Jansa is back (DW)
- Slovenia Politics Explained, Who Holds Power in 2026 (Rio Times)
