The New Slovenian President and the Next Prime Minister?
The New Slovenian President (right) and the Next Prime Minister (left)? (Photo Source)

The word is out. Danilo Türk won the Presidential elections with an almost incredible lead of over 70%. I must admit that while I expected his win, I never thought the polls would predict the final results so accurately. Now, while some will say this is a record win in Slovene history, I would like to point out that while Kučan won the Presidential elections by some ten per cent less, he did so in the first round, so the results are not really comparable.

Peterle surprised me several times in the last week. By starting a negative campaign against his opponent, by caving to the pressures of a not-that-politically-strong mayor and turning his back on his campaign manager in the final stretch of the campaign and lastly today at the time of announcing the results, by his bold explanation of his loss. He basically blamed his poor results on Janez Janša and his government and confirmed that he thought his loss reflected the people’s dissatisfaction with the current Government.

Taking the above into account and combining it with the fact that the STA (Slovenian Press Agency), owned 100% by the Government, reported today on the Article published in a Croatian newspaper claiming Janša had received an enormous amount of money from gun trafficking to Bosnia and Croatia while in the capacity of the Slovenian Defence Minister between 1990 and 1994, Janez Janša (current Slovenian Prime Minister) will probably wish he had not gone to China these days. Things getting slightly out of control? The theory has long been out there that Janša is not being tough on Croatia in the borders-at-sea issues because he is being blackmailed with evidence of gun trafficking, thus compromising the country’s best interests due to his personal issues. This promisses to be an interesting topic to follow.

In his victory speech, Türk emphasized Borut Pahor‘s virtues and profoundly thanked him for his support, at the same time just like Peterle hinting that the results were partly a vote of no confidence to the current Government, which will probably have to change its actions. It was most interesting to see Gregor Golobič there in the back (but “limelight back”) as (again?) a kind of the “number one“.

Another politician we saw give a short interview on the telly was Igor Lukšič, the political strategy brains behind Borut Pahor’s Social Democrats that continue to gain ground in the Slovenian political arean. And so… round one is over and the game continues, with some of the players moving up one level.

Today is the first day of the parliamentary election campaign.
Play fair, kids!