Janez Janša is a great survivor of Slovenian politics. He served as Defense Minister in Slovenia’s first independent government in 1991 and has now returned to the Prime Minister’s office for the fourth time.
Appointed on May 22, he is already stirring controversy, both historically – over the treatment of Nazi collaborators at the end of World War II – and current, with tax cuts that trade unions say will further enrich the already wealthy to the detriment of public services.
His right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) consistently wins a quarter of the vote in parliamentary elections. Furthermore, unlike centre-left parties, it has been a permanent fixture on Slovenia’s political landscape for more than three decades.
staying power and experience
That combination of power, organization and experience has been key for Janša to form a new governing coalition, even though SDS finished second behind the center-left Freedom Movement in March’s parliamentary election.
Former Prime Minister Robert Golob was found reluctant to make deals that could keep him in government.
Ali Zerdin, editor of the weekend supplement of Slovenia’s best-selling newspaper, said, “He was completely in a position to build a coalition of the center-left and a little bit of the right, but he lacked the skills and abilities to do so.” dello.
“On the other hand, we have Janez Janša, a veteran of Slovenian politics. He knows all the tricks of building the coalition necessary to run Slovenia,” Zerdin told DW.
Far right support is raising alarm bells
The composition of the new government, which was approved by the Slovenian Parliament on Thursday, has raised quite a few eyebrows.
There was always the possibility of conservative New Slovenia joining the Janša-led coalition. But center-right Democrats had already split from SDS and attempted to portray themselves as distinct centrist proponents.
Meanwhile, support for the far-right populist Resnica party has raised alarm bells in some circles.
Its leader, Zoran Stevanovic, had signed a commitment not to join a Janša-led government, but he accepted SDS’s support to become parliamentary speaker and reciprocated by instructing his MPs to vote for Janša as prime minister.
What will be the effect on Resnika?
It is unclear what kind of influence Resnicka might have on policy, although there is an implicit threat that she will withdraw her support if she does not support the new government’s directions.
The party’s own policies are decidedly fringe: anti-vaccination, in favor of a referendum on NATO membership, and skeptical when it comes to the EU.
Adding those views to Janša’s long-standing alliance with former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban raises questions about whether Slovenia is about to replace Hungary as a key member of the EU’s Odd Squad. But new Foreign Minister Tone Kjaer insists the reality is very different.
“The EU is the core concentric circle of the Slovenian political, economic and overall environment,” Kjaer told DW on Thursday.
He said, “There is no question that Slovenia will be a bystander or something like that. And the political parties that are becoming the center of the coalition are 150% clear on this. My first visits will, of course, be to our European partners.”
politics of division
But even if the new government shows no movement in Brussels, the same is unlikely to happen at home.
During the debate to confirm his government on Thursday, Jansa insisted he wanted an “orderly and boring mandate”.
But the legislation, which began pushing it through the National Assembly even before the new administration was officially sworn in, shows that the politics of division is still part of Jansa’s strategy.
An omnibus bill that includes controversial tax cuts has sparked outrage from Slovenia’s trade unions. They are trying to hold a referendum on the law.
Meanwhile, human rights activists are calling for a referendum on amendments to the Parliamentary Investigations Act, which they say “opens the door to the establishment of a political police.”
controversial law
Another controversial law seeks the reunification of people killed in post-World War II reprisals, including those who were summarily executed as Nazi collaborators.
The law mandates that they be moved to the most prestigious cemetery in the capital, Ljubljana. There will also be an annual day of commemoration for these “victims of communist violence”.
The mayor of Djaljana, Zoran Jankovic, insists he will try to block the plans. He says that resistance fighters who defeated Nazism and fascism should not be compared to those who “swore an oath to the Nazis.”
However, Tone Kjaer believes reburial is absolutely the right thing to do.
“I think that’s a basic civilizational foundation,” he said. “All those killed deserve a grave. There was no trial of those people. Therefore, it is difficult to say that they were all Nazi collaborators. This is an ideological cultural battle that some political forces in Slovenia want to use to divide people. We are going to close this chapter of our really painful and painful history – I don’t see anything controversial in it.”
Is the fear of polarization justified?
Janša used his first parliamentary address to preemptively condemn the protesters, saying that the future would be decided by elected bodies, “not by the street, which claims itself to be the voice of the people but has never weighed in.”
In fact, the previous Jansa administration (2020-2022) virtually invited protests with its attacks on civil society, public service media, and immigration.
Ali Zerdin says that such policies do not reflect the views of most Slovenians: “There is a lot of talk about deep polarization in Slovenia, a big gap between right and left. But if you examine the distribution of values in Slovenia, you will see that they are more or less centrist,” he said.
However, the indications are that the new government will follow its own path. One of the first actions of the new administration was to remove the Palestinian flag that had flown outside the main government building since 2024.
It was as if the great survivor was announcing himself with one clear step: Janez Jansa is back.
Edited by: Angiel Flanagan