This year’s European elections mobilised much more voters than in the last 20 years. It is estimated that the average turnout in 27 European State members (excluding Great Britain) is close to 51 percent. This was also confirmed by Slovenians, who had the opportunity to vote for the EU Parliament for the third time and increased their voter turnout. Preliminary data after almost all the votes counted shows turnout in EU elections in Slovenia has risen to 28.29%, which is a considerable improvement on the record low 24.55% from 2014, but still pretty low in comparison to other European State members. The district of Koper is standing out of average, where more than half of people voted – 53.34% residents of the district went to the polls.
In Slovenia, the right joint list of Democrats (SDS) and People’s Party (SLS) won the EU elections, but the overall balance of power in the Slovenian EU Parliament has shifted to the left.
Interestingly, the latest public opinion poll has perfectly predicted how the 8 Slovenian seats in EU parliament will be split – the SDS+SLS list got three MEP’s, Social democrats (SD) and Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) got each two seats and the opposition New Slovenia got one MEP seat.
MEP’s Milan Zver, Romana Tomc and Franc Bogovič won re-election on the SDS+SLS slate and Tanja Fajon was re-elected MEP for the SD. Ljudmila Novak is returning to Brussels after four years as the deputy for the NSi. The remaining three are novices – Milan Brglez for the SD, Irena Joveva and Klemen Grošelj for the LMŠ.
MEP Milan Brglez was probably the least prominent in the election campaign. All elected members are members of parliamentary parties, only Franc Bogovič, who has been among the candidates on the SDS and SLS list, is a member of the non-parliamentary party.
The Left and Pensioner’s Party (DeSUS) narrowly missed the threshold, respectively with 6.34% and 5.66%, even though both were projected to be much closer to winning a seat. The National Party (SNS) and Alenka Bratušek List (SAB) were virtually tied at 4%. The Modern Centre Party (SMC), who was just recently the ruling party in Slovenian National Assembly, has received only 1,60% votes and has been overtaken by two green parties and the far-right Homeland League. The low result of Modern Centre Party could present the beginning of the end for the once strong political party.
