Slovenian nationalist party, a right-wing and anti-immigrant party 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 (SDS) received around 25 percent of the vote.
A center-left party, The List of Marjan Sarec (LMS), was in second place with 12.6 percent of the vote and 13 seats. He told reporters after preliminary results were released that he expected to get an opportunity to form a government, as most parties had said before the election that they were unlikely to join an SDS-led government.
“If everyone sticks to what they said before the election, we expect to get a chance to form a government,” Sarec said.
Mr Jansa, who served as prime minister during 2004-08 and 2012-13, said his party was ready for postelection talks with other parliamentary parties and he would cut taxes and speed up privatisation.
Janša acknowledged any post-election negotiations would be difficult. “We will probably have to wait for some time … before serious talks on a new government will be possible,” he told reporters after he cast his own vote.
The SDS, supported by Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán, is firmly opposed to such quotas and said most of the money used to support them should be diverted to the security forces.
Mr Jansa is an ally of Viktor Orban, Hungary’s anti-immigration prime minister. His election success with Slovenia’s 1.7 million voters mirrors the growth of Right-wing populism in Europe following a large influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
“[Our] party puts Slovenia, Slovenians first,” Janša said after preliminary results came out, adding that the SDS is ready for coalition talks with all other parliamentary parties. “We are open for cooperation, Slovenia is facing times which need cooperation,” he said.
>Juthy Saha
Anti-Immigration Party Wins Slovenia Elections
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