Slovenia is set to inaugurate its newly elected parliament on April 10th, following a tightly contested election held on March 22nd. Outgoing Prime Minister Robert Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement narrowly secured 29 seats in the 90-member legislature, while the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) won 28 seats.
The razor-thin margin means coalition talks are inevitable, with both blocs needing support from two independent parties—the anti-establishment Resni.ca (Truth) and a conservative group led by former Janša ally Anže Logar.
Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar announced on Monday that she would call the constitutive session on April 10th. She emphasized that the country’s current geopolitical challenges require swift negotiations to establish a functional government, but acknowledged that the fragmented parliament would likely necessitate several rounds of talks.
The SDS, which came second in the vote, has raised concerns about the integrity of the election. On March 24th, the party published an international bulletin asserting that “The recent parliamentary elections in the Republic of Slovenia have been marked by a systemic and multi-layered compromise of the democratic process.” The irregularities include statistically impossible data fluctuations, misallocation of candidates, erroneous vote attribution, removal of ballot boxes during voting hours, issuance of voting invitations to deceased individuals, ballot shortages in rural regions, systemic failures for voting from abroad, and postal delivery problems.
