2022 Slovenian parliamentary election

2022 Slovenian parliamentary election

24 April 2022
All 90 seats in the National Assembly 46 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Robert Golob Janez Janša Matej Tonin Party GS SDS NSi Last election – 24.92%, 25 seats 7.16%, 7 seats Seats won 41 27 8 Seat change New 2 1 Popular vote 406,761 277,094 80,757 Percentage 34.53% 23.52% 6.86% Swing New 1.40pp 0.30pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Tanja Fajon Luka Mesec Party SD Levica Last election 9.93%, 10 seats 9.33%, 9 seats Seats won 7 5 Seat change 3 4 Popular vote 78,393 51,662 Percentage 6.66% 4.39% Swing 3.27pp 4.94pp
Map of the election results, showing the seats won by each party in each of the 8 multi-member constituencies.
Prime Minister before election Janez Janša SDS Elected Prime Minister TBD

Parliamentary elections were held in Slovenia on 24 April 2022 to elect all members of the National Assembly.

The ruling Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by prime minister Janez Janša, conceded and was defeated by Robert Golob and his Freedom Movement (GS). New Slovenia (NS) placed third, and was followed by the Social Democrats (SD) and The Left (Levica), both of which suffered some losses. The List of Marjan Šarec and the Party of Alenka Bratušek fell below the 4% electoral threshold and won no seats. Turnout stood at 70%, a substantial increase compared to previous two elections (52.63% in 2018 and 51.71% in 2014).

Internationally the election has been described as a defeat for Janša and right-wing populism, Janša being a supporter of former US president Donald Trump and an ally of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Electoral system

The 90 members of the National Assembly are elected by two methods. 88 are elected by open list proportional representation in eight 11-seat constituencies and seats are allocated to the parties at the constituency level using the Droop quota. The elected Deputies are identified by ranking all of a party's candidates in a constituency by the percentage of votes they received in their district. The seats that remain unallocated are allocated to the parties at the national level using the D'Hondt method with an electoral threshold of 4%. Although the country is divided into 88 electoral districts, deputies are not elected from all 88 districts. More than one deputy is elected in some districts, which results in some districts not having an elected deputy (for instance, 21 of 88 electoral districts did not have an elected deputy in the 2014 elections). Parties must have at least 35% of their lists from each gender, except in cases where there are only three candidates. For these lists, there must be at least one candidate of each gender.

Two additional deputies are elected by the Italian and Hungarian minorities. Voters rank all of the candidates on the ballot paper using numbers (1 being highest priority). A candidate is awarded the most points (equal to the number of candidates on the ballot paper) when a voter ranks them first. The candidate with most points wins.

Campaign

President Borut Pahor signed a decree for the election to be held on 24 April 2022. Pahor explained that he will nominate a prime minister based on the composition of the parliament, requesting leaders of parliamentary groups to put forward at least 46 signatures. Prime Minister Janez Janša tested positive for Covid-19 on the same day.

Following the decision of the ECtHR in The Committee for the organization and registration of the Romanian Communist Party v. Romania case in which the ECtHR confirmed Romania's decision to refuse to register a political party that did not distance itself from the former communist regime, Vili Kovačič asked the Constitutional Court to decide on the constitutionality of The Left's program and actions of The Left and Social Democrats. The latter is the legal successor of the League of Communists of Slovenia. The Constitutional Court rejected Vili Kovačič's proposal to decide on constitutionality of The Left's program and actions of The Left and Social Democrats as groundless.

Aleksandra Pivec submitted 1500 signatures to support Our Country's candidate lists. She also stated that MPs Branko Simonovič and Ivan Hršak of DeSUS may join her party. DeSUS and LIDE decided to form a joint candidate lists for the election. Karl Erjavec, former leader of DeSUS, said in an interview that DeSUS is a failed party and that connecting with LIDE will not have a positive effect in the election. He was critical of the DeSUS MPs and Igor Zorčič, who did not support the vote of no confidence after which Erjavec would become prime minister. He added, that he might re-enter politics, but not through DeSUS, and that he has several offers from other parties. The LIDE party authorized party president Igor Zorčič to form a joint list of candidates with DeSUS and the LDS.Later LIDE announced that it would not participate in the election. DeSUS did not want broader coalition with other parties and therefore rejected an agreement offered by LIDE. LIDE's leader Igor Zorčič stated that party will skip parliamentaty election and focus on presidential and local elections, which will be held later this year. DeSUS announced that it will run in the elections on its own after refusing to form a joint list with the LIDE.

File:Sklop predvolilnih plakatov v Velenju.jpg

Posters promoting political parties during the campaign period

The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption announced that it had not found any violations regarding the vacations of Prime Minister Janez Janša with some businessmen and stopped the investigation. After the investigation of the procurement of protective equipment in the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) found a violation of the integrity by the Minister of the Economy Zdravko Počivalšek. Počivalšek stated that he will not resign and that the KPK's opinion tells more about the KPK itlself. Robert Golob found himself under police investigation after he was accused of receiving too high a salary as a CEO of the state-owned GEN-I and therefore violating the so called "Lahkovnik" Act, which regulates the salaries of management bodies of state-owned companies.

Speaker Igor Zorčič, former member of the Modern Centre Party, founded a new party called Liberal Democrats. Robert Golob, former State Secretary in the Ministry of Economy in Prime Minister Drnovšek's cabinet and CEO of GEN-i, was elected president of the Green Actions Party, renaming it to the Freedom Movement. Igor Zorčič announced that the Liberal Democrats will not form a coalition with the Freedom Movement, which was a mutual decision of both parties. Allegedly, Freedom Movement's leader Golob only offered Zorčič to be a candidate on his party's candidate list, and not a joint list. Whistleblower Ivan Gale became president of the Our Future party, and former European Commissioner Violeta Bulc was elected vice president. Smiljan Mekicar of Good Country party confirmed that they will form a joint list fir Ivan Gale's Our Future party and some other parties and lists.

RTV Slovenia, the public brodcaster, rejected Freedom Movement's request to recognize them as a parliamentary party. RTV Slovenia recognized Aleksandra Pivec's Our Country party as a parliamentary party, which by law allows it to participate in electoral debates with other parliamentary parties. RTV Slovenia recognized Our Country as the successor to DeSUS, because Aleksandra Pivec was elected president of DeSUS, but then resigned and founded a new party, which was joined by several former members of DeSUS. According to RTV Slovenia, the situation was the same as in the case of the Alliance of Alenka Bratušek before the 2014 elections. Alenka Bratušek was elected president of Positive Slovenia, then resigned and founded a new party, which included several members of Positive Slovenia. RTV Slovenia granted the Alliance of Alenka Bratušek parliamentary status. Freedom Movement was granted parliamentary status after it won a suit against RTV Slovenia for political discrimination.

Parties and election coalitions

The following parties and lists have seats in the current National Assembly before the election:

Party/List					Main ideology	Leader	Role	National Assembly Seats
								2018 election	Current (pre-election)
	SDS	Slovenian Democratic Party Slovenska demokratska stranka			Conservatism	Janez Janša Prime Minister	Government	25 / 90	26 / 90
	LMŠ	List of Marjan Šarec Lista Marjana Šarca			Social liberalism	Marjan Šarec MP, fmr. Prime Minister	Opposition	13 / 90	14 / 90
	SD	Social Democrats Socialni demokrati			Social democracy	Tanja Fajon MEP	Opposition	10 / 90	13 / 90
	Levica	The Left Levica			Democratic socialism	Luka Mesec MP	Opposition	9 / 90	7 / 90
	NSi	New Slovenia Nova Slovenija			Christian democracy	Matej Tonin Minister of Defence	Government	7 / 90	7 / 90
	SAB	Party of Alenka Bratušek Stranka Alenke Bratušek			Social liberalism	Alenka Bratušek MP, fmr. Prime Minister	Opposition	5 / 90	6 / 90
	DeSUS	Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije			Pensioners' interests	Ljubo Jasnič fmr. State Secretary	Opposition Support by the MPs, not the party	5 / 90	4 / 90
	PoS	Let's Connect Slovenia Povežimo Slovenijo		Concretely Konkretno	Liberalism	Zdravko Počivalšek Minister of Economy	Government	10 / 90	4 / 90
				Slovenian People's Party (SLS) Slovenska ljudska stranka	Conservatism	Marjan Podobnik fmr. Deputy Prime Minister	Government	0 / 90	0 / 90
				Greens of Slovenia (Zeleni) Zeleni Slovenije	Green conservatism	Andrej Čuš State Secretary	Government	0 / 90	0 / 90
				New People's Party (NLS) Nova ljudska stranka	Conservatism	Željko Vogrin National Councilor	Government	0 / 90	0 / 90
				New Social Democracy (NSD) Nova socialdemokracija	Social democracy	Andrej Magajna fmr. MP	Opposition	0 / 90	0 / 90
	SNS	Slovenian National Party Slovenska nacionalna stranka			Nationalism	Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti MP	Opposition Support	4 / 90	3 / 90
	GS	Freedom Movement Gibanje svoboda			Green liberalism	Robert Golob fmr. State Secretary	Opposition	New	2 / 90
	ND	Our Country Naša dežela			Agrarianism	Aleksandra Pivec fmr. Minister of Agriculture	Opposition Support	New	1 / 90

Leader profiles

• 
  Janez Janša
  SDS
  63 years old
  Edu.: Defence Studies
  Background: Politician
  Prime Minister (2004-08, 2012-13, 2020-), Minister of Defence (1990-94, 2000), MP (1990-)
• 
  Marjan Šarec
  LMŠ
  44 years old
  Edu.: Acting
  Background: Politician, Comedian
  Prime Minister (2018-20), MP (2018-)
• 
  Tanja Fajon
  SD
  50 years old
  Edu.: Journalism, Int.'l Politics
  Background: Politician, Journalist
  MEP (2009-)
• 
  Zdravko Počivalšek
  PoS
  64 years old
  Edu.: Agronomy
  Background: Politician, Businessman
  Minister of Economy (2014-)
• 
  Luka Mesec
  Levica
  34 years old
  Edu.: European Studies
  Background: Politician, Activist
  MP (2014-)
• 
  Matej Tonin
  NSi
  38 years old
  Edu.: Political Science
  Background: Politician, Businessman
  Minister of Defence (2020-), Speaker (2018), MP (2014-)
• 
  Alenka Bratušek
  SAB
  51 years old
  Edu.: Textile, Management
  Background: Politician, Civil servant
  Prime Minister (2013-14), Minister of Infrastructure (2018-20), MP (2011-18, 21-)
• 
  Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti
  SNS
  74 years old
  Edu.: Pharmacy, Diplomacy
  Background: Politician, Civil servant
  MP (1990-2011, 2018-)
• 
  Aleksandra Pivec
  ND
  49 years old
  Edu.: Chemical Engineering
  Background: Politician, Researcher
  Minister of Agriculture (2018-2020), State Secretary (2017-2018)
• Robert Golob GS 55 years old Edu.: Electrical Engineering Background: Politician, Businessman
  Robert Golob
  GS
  55 years old
  Edu.: Electrical Engineering
  Background: Politician, Businessman

Other parties

Party/List					Main ideology	President
	Pirati	Pirate Party of Slovenia Piratska stranka Slovenije			Pirate politics	Boštjan Tavčar
	Vesna	Spring – Green Party Vesna - zelena stranka			Green politics	Urša Zgojznik & Uroš Macerl
	Resni.ca	Tru.th Resni.ca			Populism	Zoran Stevanović
	DOM	Homeland League Domovinska liga			Nationalism	Bernard Brščič fmr. State Secretary
	TBA			Good Country (DD) Dobra država	Anti-corruption	Smiljan Mekicar
				Our Future Naša prihodnost		Ivan Gale
	ZOS	Liberate Slovenia Alliance Zavezništvo Osvobodimo Slovenijo		United Slovenia Movement (ZSi) Gibanje Zedinjena Slovenija	Nationalism	Andrej Šiško
				People's Party of Labor (NSD) Narodna stranka dela	Nationalism	Marijan Poljšak
				Aleksander Kamenik's Party (SAK) Stranka Aleksandra Kamenika	Animal rights	Aleksander Kamenik
				Party of Slovenian People (SSN) Stranka Slovenskega naroda	Nationalism	Aleksander Zamuda
	ZLS	For the People of Slovenia Za ljudstvo Slovenije				Anica Bidar

Parties that fulfill the criteria

X	Constituency with submitted list of candidates
	Rejected list of candidates

Party/Alliance			Leader	Support	Constituency
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	NSi	New Slovenia - Christian Democrats Nova Slovenija - Krščanski demokrati	Matej Tonin	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	SNS	Slovenian National Party Slovenska nacionalna stranka	Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	DeSUS	Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia Demokratična stranka upokojencev Slovenije	Ljubo Jasnič		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	RESNI.CA	Tru.th Resni.ca	Zoran Stevanović		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	SD	Social Democrats Socialni demokrati	Tanja Fajon	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	DOM	Homeland League Domovinska liga	Bernard Brščič		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Pirati	Pirate Party of Slovenia Piratska stranka Slovenije	Boštjan Tavčar		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	ZLS	For the People of Slovenia Za ljudstvo Slovenije	Anica Bidar		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	ZZD	For a Healthy Society Za zdravo družbo	Gregor Kos		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	GS	Freedom Movement Gibanje svoboda	Robert Golob		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	ND	Our Land Naša dežela	Aleksandra Pivec		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	SAB	Party of Alenka Bratušek Stranka Alenke Bratušek	Alenka Bratušek	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	Levica	The Left Levica	Luka Mesec	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	LMŠ	List of Marjan Šarec Lista Marjana Šarca	Marjan Šarec	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	PoS	Let's Connect Slovenia Povežimo Slovenijo		3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	SDS	Slovenian Democratic Party Slovenska demokratska stranka	Janez Janša	3 MPs	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	VESNA	Spring - Green Patry Vesna - zelena stranka	Urša Zgojznik & Uroš Macerl		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	ZOS	Alliance Let us Liberate Slovenia Zavezništvo Osvobodimo Slovenijo			X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	LBP	List Boris Popovič – Let's Digitalize Slovenia Lista Borisa Popoviča – Digitalizirajmo Slovenijo	Boris Popovič		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
	NP–DD	Our Future and Good Country Naša prihodnost in Dobra država	Smiljan Mekicar & Ivan Gale		X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Provisional number of parties in the constituency					20	20	19	19	19	19	20	20
Source: Siol.net

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2022 Slovenian parliamentary election

Polls since the 2018 election

Results

The turnout in the vote was 70%, according to the election commission. Experts said that was well above the national average. Peter Merše, a political analyst, said; "The biggest winner is of course the Freedom Movement. Slovenia is once again experimenting with new faces, with people we have hardly even heard of before." The voter turnout at early election, that took place from 19 to 21 April, was 7.67%, which was the record turnout for early voting both in election and referendums.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Freedom Movement	406,761	34.53	41	New
	Slovenian Democratic Party	277,094	23.52	27	+2
	New Slovenia – Christian Democrats	80,757	6.86	8	+1
	Social Democrats	78,393	6.66	7	–3
	The Left	51,662	4.39	5	–4
	List of Marjan Šarec	43,885	3.73	0	–13
	Let's Connect Slovenia	40,270	3.42	0	–10
	Resni.ca	33,680	2.86	0	New
	Party of Alenka Bratušek	30,773	2.61	0	–5
	Healthy Society Movement	20,784	1.76	0	New
	Our Future and Good State	19,978	1.70	0	0
	Pirate Party	19,196	1.63	0	0
	Our Country	17,724	1.50	0	New
	Slovenian National Party	17,606	1.49	0	–4
	Spring – Green Party	15,661	1.33	0	New
	For the People of Slovenia	8,218	0.70	0	New
	Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia	7,582	0.64	0	–5
	List of Boris Popovič – Let's Digitize Slovenia	5,079	0.43	0	New
	Homeland League	2,086	0.18	0	New
	Liberate Slovenia Alliance	549	0.05	0	New
	United Slovenia Movement	168	0.01	0	0
Italian and Hungarian national minorities				2	0
Total		1,177,906	100.00	90	0
Valid votes		1,177,906	99.09
Invalid/blank votes		10,858	0.91
Total votes		1,188,764	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,695,771	70.10
Source: Volitve (99.98% counted)

Aftermath

The Freedom Movement led by Robert Golob, a former executive of a state-owned energy company, won 41 seats. It had campaigned on a transition to green energy, an open society and the rule of law. The Slovenian Democratic Party of incumbent prime minister Janez Janša finished second and won 27 seats. New Slovenia – Christian Democrats finished third and won 8 seats, followed by the Social Democrats with 7 seats and The Left with 5 seats. Golob, speaking to party headquarters via video link, declared victory and thanked his celebrating supporters for the historical turnout. On the other hand, prime minister Janša addressing his supporters conceded defeat and said: "The results are what they are. Congratulations to the relative winner." Luka Mesec, the coordinator of The Left, announced that he would offer to resign as the party coordinator.

In Slovenia, political analysts commented that many people voted for Golob because he was seen as the most likely candidate to win against Janša's government, and tactical voting took place. The result came at the expense of the two opposition parties, the List of Marjan Šarec and the Party of Alenka Bratušek, both of which failed to secure seats in the National Assembly. Freedom Movement won the highest number of seats for a single party in the elections since the independence of Slovenia. The number of parties that won seats (five) was the smallest elected to the legislature in the same time period; for comparison, nine parties were elected in 2018. Commentators mentioned that Golob, previously a successful businessman, is a newcomer to the office, and that there are still several unknowns about the party priorities. They also mentioned that he may lack qualified people to take the offices. Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič of Delo saw the result more like a defeat for Janša than a win for Golob, and added that the election in Slovenia would be internationally seen as a footnote in the fight against right-wing populism, as the world was mostly focused on the bigger election of the day, the 2022 French presidential election.

International media saw the relative victory of the Freedom Movement as a defeat of right-wing populism of Janša's government, and commented that Janša was a supporter of the former US president Donald Trump and an ally of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In Croatia, the news portal Index commented that Golob embodies the values of the late Prime Minister and President Janez Drnovšek, and that a scenario where a political newcomer wins the election cannot happen in Croatia.

In order to form a government, Euronews reported that Freedom Movement is expected to form a coalition with "smaller centre-left groups". Prior to election, Golob suggested that he could cooperate with the existing opposition parties. Both Social Democrats and The Left lost seats but were considered likely coalition partners, with possible collaboration with the List of Marjan Šarec and the Party of Alenka Bratušek discussed prior to the elections as well. In early reactions, Golob stated that he does not exclude working with the Slovenian Democratic Party and New Slovenia on some projects, but added that the projects requiring a constitutional majority are not the top priority at the moment. After meeting with Golob two days after the election, President Borut Pahor stated that he planned to appoint a new government led by Golob in late May, with coalition talks with the Social Democrats and The Left due to start the week after the meeting.