"Slovenian Trump is history": Landslide victory for Green-Liberal party

Created: 04/24/2022, 23:01

By: Magdalena Furthauer

In addition to France, elections were also held in Slovenia today.

They probably lead to the political departure of "Europe's Donald Trump", the election winner is probably Golob, a career changer.

Ljubljana - While Europe is fully focused on the presidential elections in France on Sunday evening, a dramatic election is also taking place in the small EU country Slovenia.

The liberal political career changer Robert Golob could dethrone the controversial Janez Jansa.

Some even refer to the latter as the “Slovenian Donald Trump”.

Elections in Slovenia: Landslide victory for Green-Liberal party - "Slovenian Trump" is history

The new liberal party of energy manager Robert Golob has won the parliamentary elections in Slovenia according to the first partial results.

The right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa could lose his office after just over two years.

Golob's freedom movement came on Sunday after counting almost half of the votes cast to 33 percent and 40 of the 90 parliamentary seats, according to the State Electoral Commission.

Jansa's SDS party got 25 percent of the voters behind it at this count and can count on 31 seats.

Only two other parties, the conservative New Slovenia (NSi, 7 percent, 9 seats) and the Social Democrats (SD, 7 percent, 8 seats) also cleared the four percent hurdle, which is decisive for entering parliament.

One seat in parliament is reserved for representatives of the Italian and Hungarian minorities.

With this distribution of mandates, Golob could form a majority with the Social Democrats.

Slovenia election: Jansa before defeat - Twitter celebrates

After Macron's election victory in France, another liberal candidate was able to celebrate a triumph on Sunday.

Supporters of his politics are not only celebrating in Slovenia, but also on Twitter, many users are satisfied with the outcome of the election.

For example, a Swiss journalist tweeted: "Slovenian Trump is history." Another user also writes that "Europe's Donald Trump has been voted out".

Of course, not all users see it that way.

A lady accuses Golob of voter fraud.

Another user says that Macron, Biden and Golob are not chosen because of the program, "but to prevent evil right-wing populists from going down!"

Slovenia: right-wing Jansa loses, liberal Golob wins

Golob has already reacted to his supposed election victory and said in a speech: "People really trust that we are the only ones who are able to fulfill the hope for change."

Political career changer Golob has probably beaten the “Slovenian Trump” Janez Jansa.

© Darko Bandic/AP/dpa

Jansa was Prime Minister of Slovenia from 2004 to 2008, 2012 to 2013 and now apparently from 2020 to 2022.

He is considered a close ally of right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Hungarian businessmen who depend on Orban have been financing SDS television stations, newspapers and online portals for years.

Under Jansa, EU country Slovenia moved closer to the “illiberal” axis formed by the EU-sceptical governments in Budapest and Warsaw.