Today, Slovenians vote in regular parliamentary elections. Polling stations open at 7 a.m. local time (8 a.m. Bulgarian time) and will accept citizens until 7 p.m.
A total of 17 parties and coalitions will compete for seats in Slovenia's 90-member parliament. A parliamentary majority requires a party or coalition to win at least 46 seats.
The parties participating in the election race are the ruling party "Movement for Freedom" (DS), the opposition "Slovenian Democratic Party" (SDP), the coalition of parties "New Slovenia" (NS), "Slovenian People's Party" (SNP) and "Focus", "Social Democrats" (SD), the coalition of the parties "Left" and "Spring", "Democrats", "Resnica", "Voice of Pensioners", "Hope", the coalition "Alternative for Slovenia", "We, the Socialists", "Pirate Party of Slovenia", "Prerod", "Slovenian National Party" (SNP), the coalition of "Greens" and "Party of Generation", "Decision" and "Unity".
These parliamentary elections have been marked by signals of foreign interference in the electoral process. A few days before the election, allegations emerged that representatives of the Israeli private intelligence firm "Black Cube" had visited the country several times and communicated with representatives of the opposition SPD.
Prime Minister Robert Golob described the case as "the biggest scandal since independence" and accused "foreign services" of interfering in the elections. President Natasha Pirz Musar also expressed concern that such actions "undermine democracy".
The chairman of the opposition SPD, Janez Janša, confirmed that he had met with representatives of "Black Cube" but denied that the meetings had anything to do with the elections.