“If this will be the actual number of seats we get, we will have equalled the party’s best result in history and significantly increased the number of votes and won in districts we have never won before,” said the departing Prime Minister Janez Janša in a post-election statement for the media. According to him, the results show that citizens have had enough of the Constitutional Arch Coalition (the left-wing parties of the current opposition), as they were “swept out” of parliament by the voters.
President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Janez Janša, thanked all SDS voters and teams that worked hard during these campaign weeks in his speech in the Cankar hall. He specifically mentioned the two election headquarters of the constituencies where the party achieved victorious results. He also thanked the coalition partners and congratulated the relative winner. According to Janša, the differences in the number of votes for individual parties are much closer than they showed, as ten thousand votes could change the outcome significantly. He also expressed regret over the fact that certain parties did not create a shared list, as in that case, they could have probably entered the parliament. He welcomed the high turnout and hopes that this trend will continue in all future elections as well. According to Janša, the new government will have to face many challenges, however, solid foundations have been laid under this government, so leading the state will now be much easier.
According to the departing Prime Minister, the SDS party was faced with a dilemma after the previous coalition gave up on leading our country, whether to go to early elections or form a coalition of parties who all think differently, and since then, they have been fighting a battle of providing clear, tangible results of their hard work, but still not being welcomed by the media, which also affected the results of the election. “If this will be the actual number of seats we get, we will have equalled the party’s best result in history and significantly increased the number of votes and won in districts we have never won before.” As the departing Prime Minister also explained, the result does not change anything, and Slovenian Democratic Party is still willing to cooperate with other parties for the benefit of Slovenia. He said that they would never act like the opposition has acted in the last two years, when Slovenia was fighting the epidemic, and the ruling coalition got anything but support and willingness to cooperate from the opposition. However, the SDS party is prepared to act differently – in a state-building manner.
The results show that the citizens have had enough of the Constitutional Arch Coalition
When asked by a journalist whether Janša saw the results as a sign of the citizens being fed up with politics, he explained that the results show that the citizens have actually had enough of the current opposition, as the voters “swept it” out of parliament. Namely, the SDS party did not go to the polls with the tactic of a funnel, with the intention of collecting all the votes, but acted as a team with the parties it is close to and still increased the number of seats it has in parliament, compared to the previous term.
When asked about the Russian interference in Slovenian elections, Janša said that no one expressed that – he merely explained the concerns that have come from abroad and the attacks on the government and him personally because he was part of the team that visited Kyiv and not Moscow. Namely, certain concerns have arisen in Europe regarding the pro-Russian orientation in the work of member states’ policies, and this concern is also justified in Slovenia, as people who still have bloody Putin’s medals on their chests and do not intend to return them are proudly walking around our country.
Janša also said that the SDS party is entering the new mandate much stronger than it was before. “It is one thing to run a campaign and win at the elections without a single municipal committee, a single councillor, a single MP; it is easy to fund posters and hang them with the support of the so-called civil society and the media. However, after all of that come the real challenges and hard work, and none of those things from before are of much help anymore.” Janša also expressed his belief that it would be appropriate for Golob, as the relative winner, to form a strong government team for the benefit of the whole of Slovenia and not just for some. The SDS party is also willing to help with this. “If we will be part of the opposition and will be offered a partnership, we will be happy to accept it.”
Sara Kovač
