A small central European country, formerly part of Yugoslavia. Freedom House monitors it as one of 29 formerly communist countries.
Janez Jansa, a right-wing populist, challenged Robert Golob's Freedom Movement in a general election held on March 22nd 2026.
Jansa modelled his governing style on that of Viktor Orban of Hungary. A Jansa victory would give Orban a second ally in the European Union alongside Slovakia's Robert Fico, making it harder for the EU to circumvent Hungary's vetoes of aid to Ukraine or to punish it for violating the rule of law.
The 2026 campaign was upended by a spy scandal: a website appeared filled with accusations of corruption against people linked to the government, with videos showing them bragging about political connections to apparent foreign businesspeople. Mladina, a local news outlet, reported that operatives from Black Cube, an Israeli political-intelligence firm, had met Jansa at his party's headquarters in December. Jansa denied involvement; his party wrote on X that "a monument should be erected" to the firm. Golob alleged that "foreign services" were meddling in the election.
QOTD: "Everything I am today I owe to people, whom it is now to late to punish."