Janez Jansa is a right-wing populist Slovenian politician and three-time former prime minister. He leads the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).
During his most recent term in office, Jansa moved Slovenia in an increasingly autocratic direction. He lambasted journalists as "presstitutes" and bullied RTV, an independent news outlet, by cutting state funding. Freedom House found that during his time in power Slovenia had the sharpest democratic decline among the 29 formerly communist countries it monitors.
Jansa lost the 2022 election by a landslide to Robert Golob. In the March 2026 election campaign, a spy scandal involving Black Cube, an Israeli intelligence firm, disrupted the race; operatives reportedly met Jansa at SDS headquarters. Jansa denied involvement.
Jansa modelled his governing style on that of Viktor Orban of Hungary. Both men rail against global elites and insidious deep-state forces.
Insanity is the final defense ... It's hard to get a refund when the salesman is sniffing your crotch and baying at the moon.