Slovenia’s caretaker prime minister, Robert Golob, on Monday admitted his party was unable to form a government, potentially paving the way for the return of populist Janez Janša.
Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement won last month’s national election by a razor-thin margin, securing 29 of the 90 seats in the Slovenian parliament, but failed to secure a governing majority. After a month of failed coalition talks, Golob said he had informed Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar that his party had resigned itself to leading the parliamentary opposition.
Janša, whose Slovenian Democratic Party secured 28 seats in last month’s election, is now expected to attempt to form a right-wing coalition government.
Earlier this month, Janša’s party backed the pro-Russian Resni.ca party’s bid to have its leader, Zoran Stevanović, elected speaker of Slovenia’s parliament. The move was widely interpreted as signaling an alliance between the two populist parties, but following his own meeting with Pirc Musar on Monday, Janša acknowledged his party had not yet secured the support required to return to power.
The populist leader, who has already served as Slovenia’s prime minister on three separate occasions, added his party was comfortable forming a government, remaining in the opposition, or participating in repeat elections. “All three options are good for us,” he said.
If Janša, a self-professed admirer of Donald Trump, succeeds in forming a government, he would return to the European Council just as his ally, outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is set to stop attending the periodic summits of EU leaders.
