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.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of