Slovenia’s opposition Social Democrats held a razor-thin lead over the ruling center-right party of Prime Minister Janez Jansa in parliamentary elections, nearly complete results showed. But the vote was too close to predict the outcome with certainty.
Social Democrat leader Borut Pahor — who, with his two certain allied parties is close to winning a majority in parliament — called his party’s results on Sunday a “success,” but did not declare victory.
Asked whether he would be the next prime minister, he said: “Well, I don’t know that yet. But I have a good feeling.”
Jansa would have a much more difficult time trying to cobble together a majority to stay in power. He acknowledged that Pahor and his partners would probably form the new Cabinet.
Still, he said his congratulations to Pahor would wait until results are final.
“Everything is still open,” he said.
Voters had faced a choice between a prime minister bruised by a corruption claim and a leftist opposition that said the incumbent was endangering the nation’s democracy.
Results from the state-run Electoral Commission showed that, with about 99 percent of votes counted, the Social Democrats held a lead of one percentage point. The results give the party 29 seats in 90-seat parliament; Jansa is projected to control 28.
With support of his two certain allies, Pahor will control about 43 seats — just three short of a majority.
Jansa seemed to be in a much less favorable situation: One of his two allies did not make it into parliament at all, the results showed, making it difficult for Jansa to find allies to challenge the leftist opposition.
The president gives mandate for forming a new Cabinet to a party or coalition that can guarantee that it controls majority of the seats in parliament.
The Pensioners’ Party, a nationalist group, and even two minority representatives — representatives of Italian and Hungarians ethnic minorities — could be kingmakers.
About 1.7 million people were eligible to vote for 90 Parliament members — 88 of whom are elected from political parties and two of whom are chosen by Italian and Hungarian minorities.
Slovenia’s foreign policy, its market economy and generally Western democratic norms are not expected to change significantly, no matter who forms the next government.
The former Yugoslav country of 2 million people is a member of the EU and NATO. It uses the euro currency and has living standards similar to those in Italy.
Jansa’s critics had contended his grip on power was too firm — some compared him to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin —and that endangered the nation’s democracy.
He was recently accused by a Finnish TV station of taking a bribe to grant a military contract to the Finnish firm Patria. Jansa dismissed the accusations as “absurd and untrue.”
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