UPDATE INFORMATION ON THE EVENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA, December 1 - 4, 2002
Četrtek, 05. december
Janez Drnovšek Won Presidential Elections, Barbara Brezigar Obtained a Good Result
Regardless the victory of the outgoing prime minister Janez Drnovšek, who was elected the president of the Republic of Slovenia in the 1 December run - off, the independent candidate Mrs Barbara Brezigar obtained a big success. Dr Janez Drnovšek, who has been on the political scene for more than a decade, favoured by the media and having unlimited funds at his disposal as the president of the largest governing party, the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), got 56.51 percent of the vote. On the other hand, the independent candidate Mrs Barbara Brezigar, who was relatively unknown to the general public at the beginning of election campaign and who did not enjoy any privileges in the financial and other terms during the election campaign, managed to secure nearly 44 percent of the vote. This has been a great progress as the opinion polls released at the beginning of the year gave her just around 4 percent. On the contrary the support to Dr Janez Drnovšek has dropped from 62 percent to 56 percent, despite the fact that he abused his function of the prime minister. Mrs Barbara Brezigar was backed by the two opposition parties, the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (SDS) and the New Slovenia (NSi), forming the Coalition Slovenia. Her voters are largely young people and intelligentsia. Mrs Barbara Brezigar has virtually deeply changed political trend in Slovenia. She highlighted the values on which a modern democratic society should be based and inspired confidence and a new vision to Slovenian voters. This should represent a milestone in Slovenian policy, particularly at the time of its accession to the EU and NATO. The Slovenian voters have been seeking for a new alternative to the present political situation. It has become transparent that the largest ruling party LDS now enjoys absolute power in Slovenia. The President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the absolute majority in the Parliament, managers of banks, insurance companies and large enterprises, they are all members of the LDS. The support to the independent candidate was increasing from day to day as voters recognised her as a real alternative to voting the LDS. With constantly increasing support, she could have even won the run – off, it the elections had taken place couple of days later.
Local elections: transitional left remains in power
The results of local elections in Slovenia reveal an unpleasant fact that Slovenia is sharing the destiny of all post – communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.It came as a surprise that the independent lists of candidates for mayors and municipality’s councils received a surprising share of voters’ support (30 percent). Not all of them offered really independent candidates. A lot of so called independent lists were set up by the former communists. They thus manage to misuse the voters’ will to vote for an alternative to the incumbent Government. The real opposition parties were not sufficiently recognised as an alternative. Or they were perceived as too weak opposition to the Government. The largest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDS) and its coalition partner (NSi) have to a certain extent played a very constructive role in supporting the Government in the process of accession to the EU and NATO and some other strategic projects. Therefore the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (SDS) enjoyed 3 percent lower support than in 2000 parliamentary elections. Nevertheless, 63 majors out of 193 were elected either as SDS candidates or by the SDS support.
The Slovenian cities were a great victory for former communists (ZL). Itscandidates will preside over two leading Slovenian cities, namely Ljubljana and Maribor. The voters in several cities actually switched over from the Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS) to the junior coalition United List (ZL). Despite enjoying victory in the presidential elections, the Liberal Democracy (LDS) did not obtain good results in local elections. In comparison to the 2000 general elections, it obtained 13 percent less support.
Results of local elections 2002
Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS)23.57 %
Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (SDS)12.63 %
New Slovenia (NSi)8.31 %
Slovenian People’s Party (SLS)9.98 %
United List(ZL)10.71 %
Party of Pensioners( DeSus)5.29%
Slovenian National Party(SNS)2.35 %
Party of the Youth(SMS)4.46 %
Independent lists22.7 %
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