European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1366

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Exit polls in Slovenia’s parliamentary vote Sunday suggested a strong lead for the opposition liberals over the ruling right-wing populists of Prime Minister Janez Jansa.

The polls conducted by the Mediana polling agency and published by public broadcaster TV Slovenia and commercial Pop TV showed the opposition Freedom Movement winning 35.8% support compared with the ruling conservative Slovenian Democratic Party with 22.5%.

Trailing behind the top two contenders were New Slovenia party with 6.8%, followed by Social Democrats with 6.6% and the Left party with 4.4%.

If confirmed in an official tally, the result means that the Freedom Movement, a newcomer in the election, stands a better chance of forming the next government in a coalition with smaller center-left groups — a blow to Jansa, a populist who was accused of pushing the country to the right while in power.

The vote provoked higher than usual turnout, reflecting strong voter interest in the race in the politically divided European Union nation.

Nearly 50% of Slovenia’s 1.7 million voters had cast ballots by mid-afternoon, according to state election authorities — up some 15% compared with the previous election in 2018.

Surveys before the vote predicted that no single party will be able to form a government on its own and that a coalition government will have to be formed after the vote, made up of at least three or four parties.

It still remained unclear which smaller groups will pass the 4% threshold and what the final distribution of parliamentary seats will look like. Election authorities also must add the early votes to the tally.

“Today is an important day as these elections decide how Slovenia will develop not only in the next four years, but in the next decade,” Jansa said as he voted on Sunday. “Expectations are good.”

Jansa became prime minister a little over two years ago after the previous liberal premier resigned. An admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, Jansa has pushed the country to the right since taking over at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On April 25 2022 03:12 RvB wrote:
That's good. I'm not sure how this can be called a tight race. 58% win is still a very comfortable victory.

On April 25 2022 04:32 LegalLord wrote:
Disappointing but not at all surprising. The votes just weren’t there.

On April 25 2022 04:32 LegalLord wrote:
Disappointing but not at all surprising. The votes just weren’t there.

On April 25 2022 09:47 Mohdoo wrote:
Now that Macron blew up Le Pen yet again, can we just skip the hype next time? It seems the only way Macron loses is if he is eliminated early. How long could Macron keep getting re-elected? Would his party keep dominance even after him?

On April 25 2022 09:47 Mohdoo wrote:
Now that Macron blew up Le Pen yet again, can we just skip the hype next time? It seems the only way Macron loses is if he is eliminated early. How long could Macron keep getting re-elected? Would his party keep dominance even after him?

On April 25 2022 07:49 LegalLord wrote:

You're certainly right policy-wise; I trust neither her competence nor intentions on that front. Would have been a nice thorn in the backside of the EU though, a solid minor moral victory were it to come to pass.

That said, 8.5 7.5 p.p. improvement from last election is pretty solid. I did expect Le Pen to perform slightly worse than polled, but she managed to stay comfortably in the 40's in the final result. That's good news.

On April 25 2022 18:50 Artisreal wrote:
I always fail to see why people consider the horseshoe theory relevant.
The convergence is superficial at best and crumbles under scrutiny. While means can be similar, intent and goal are worlds apart and ignoring that is a key mistake I feel is made too easily for the sake of abbreviating conversation.