Right-wing party lead in polls but not enough to form government

A right-wing opposition party led by a former Slovenian prime minister won the most votes in Slovenia’s parliamentary election on Sunday, but not enough to form a government on its own, according to preliminary results.

The State Election Commission said after counting some 90 percent of the ballots that Janez Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party received around 25 per cent of the vote.

The right-wing party was favoured to win but since no party secured a majority in Slovenia’s 90-member parliament, the likely next step is negotiations to form a coalition government.

Anti-immigrant Slovenian Democratic Party of former Prime Minister Jansa was leading the polls going into the election.

Trailing behind him were the anti-establishment List of Marjan Sarec, the Social Democrats and the Modern Center Party of outgoing Prime Minister Miro Cerar. Around 1.7 million voters in the European Union nation of two million cast their votes. Right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party saw strong support ahead of the ballot, followed by an anti-establishment party led by ex-comedian Marjan Sarec and several moderategroupsfromtheoutgoing ruling coalition. The party’s rise in popularity among Slovenia’s 1.7 million voters mirrors the growth of right-wing populism in central and eastern Europe following a large influx of migrants from the Mideast and Africa.

Slovenia, once part of the former Yugoslavia and the native home of US first lady Melania Trump, joined the Europeanunionin2004.ithas used the euro as its official currency since 2007. Traditionally moderate, Slovenia largely has been ruled by centrist groups since it gained independence from communistrun Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Jansa, a former communistera dissident, who served as prime minister twice, said: “I believe a first step will be taken toward turning Slovenia into a country that will put a Slovenian first, his safety and welfare,” Jansa said while voting yesterday.

He acknowledged that forming a government could be a problem. “I am sceptical that the result will be such to grant enough stability to achieve this in one step. But this will be the beginning.” Jansa allied himself with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who participated in one of the SDS party’s election rallies.

Orban built a razor-wire fence on Hungary’s border with Serbia to keep migrants away. A government led by Jansa would shift Slovenia to the right and add an anti-immigrant voice to the EU. Some 500,000 migrants passed through Slovenia, a country with a population of two million, during 2015.