Slovenia - Election 2008 - National Assembly
In November 2007 elections, Danilo Turk succeeded Janez Drnovsek as President of the Republic of Slovenia with 68% of the vote.
By May 2008 Slovenia's domestic political climate was heating up in advance of the September 21 parliamentary elections which, like past elections, were expected to be free and fair. Prime Minister Jansa was hoping to capitalize on the success of Slovenia's EU Presidency to strengthen the position of his center-right party, the Slovene Democrats (SDS). While the opposition had agreed not to play a spoiler role during the EU Presidency, pre-election posturing had already begun. Polls showed SDS and the leading opposition party, the center-left Social Democrats, to be neck and neck.
The 01 September 2008 Finnish TV program accusing PM Janez Jansa of accepting a bribe of up to 21 million euros in connection with the Slovenian Ministry of Defense 258 million euro deal to buy 135 Finnish Patria armored motorized vehicles (AMVs) has started a firestorm in Slovenia in the run-up to national elections on September 21. PM Jansa has repeatedly denied the accusations flat-out, attributing them to a pre-election smear campaign. While one might expect such explosive allegations to hurt Jansa politically, many Slovenes seemed to have the opposite reaction: they saw Jansa as a victim.
Parliamentary elections on 21 September 2008 brought a new center-left coalition to power, with Borut Pahor, head of the Social Democrats, replacing Jansa as prime minister in November 2008. The combined total of 45 percent for the center left parties, SD, Zares, and LDS, far exceeded the predictions of pre-election polls. Social Democrats get 30,45% of the vote, the Slovenian Democratic Party 29,26 %, the Zares party 9,37 %, the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia 7,45 %, the Slovenian National Party 5,40 %, the coalition of Slovenian People’s Party and the Youth Party of Slovenia 5,21 % and Liberal Democracy of Slovenia 5,21 %.
The government and most of the Slovenian polity shared a common view of the desirability of a close association with the West, specifically of membership in both the EU and NATO. For all the apparent bitterness that divides left and right wings, there are few fundamental philosophical differences between them in the area of public policy. Slovenian society is built on consensus, which has converged on a social-democrat model. Political differences tend to have their roots in the roles that groups and individuals played during the years of communist rule and the struggle for independence.
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