By Euronews
Published on •Updated
Slovenia’s elections see the Liberals holding a narrow lead over the Conservatives, according to the first exit poll.
The vote comes down to two main players: Prime Minister Robert Golob’s Freedom Movement and the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), led by three-time prime minister Janez Janša, ally of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and an admirer of US President Donald Trump.
The race is expected to be tight, and will decide whether the country stays on its centre-left course or sways towards the right. While Janša was initially polling ahead of Golob, the gap has recently closed.
Analysts predict that neither are likely to win a clear majority in the 90-member parliament, which would turn smaller parties into kingmakers.
The outcome “is completely uncertain, which is nothing unusual for Slovenia as the electorate has always been polarised,” Slovenian sociologist Samo Uhan said.
Slovenia has long been deeply polarised, but these divisions were further intensified by a major political scandal that erupted just days before Sunday’s elections.
Golob has accused “foreign services” of interfering in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections after reports emerged that officials from Israeli private spy firm Black Cube allegedly visited the country in December and met the main opposition contender.
A Slovenian rights group, together with an investigative journalist and two researchers, in a press conference on Monday claimed Black Cube was behind videos showing alleged corruption and linked it to Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
Earlier this month, a series of secretly recorded conversations with an influential Slovenian lobbyist, a lawyer, a former minister and a manager were published.
The videos show them suggesting ways of influencing decisionmakers Golob’s centre-left coalition government in order to speed up procedures or gain contracts.
Janša’s SDS in a statement said they had never heard about Black Cube. He slammed “unprecedented corruption of the leftist elite” revealed through the videos.