Elections 2018: United Right, the Group with a Focus on Families (Feature)

By , 16 May 2018, 09:12 AM Politics
Elections 2018: United Right, the Group with a Focus on Families (Feature) United Right's Facebook page

Share this:

STA, 15 May - United Right (Združena desnica) is the coalition of two non-parliamentary parties, Voice for Children and Families (For Children) and the New People's Party (NLS), which is campaigning on a platform that emphasises family values and the rule of law and is arguably the most conservative and overtly Christian player to contest the election. 

All our election coverage can be found here, while our profiles of the parties are here.

The coalition is offering the promotion of life and family values as a recipe for preserving Slovenian identity and helping the economy by reversing the negative demographic trends.

Its key proposal is a 3,000 euro lump sum for the first newborn and 1,000 euro more for each baby after that, a one-off EUR 3,000 housing allowance for young families, and a 200 euro universal child benefit.

The party's candidates like to stress that they will help Slovenian families, they decry multiculturalism and advocate a return to traditional gender roles in opposition to what they claim is the creeping spread of "gender theory".

The second pillar is strengthening the rule of law by establishing an effective and fair justice system in which equality before the law and judicial independence will be safeguarded.

The priorities reflect issues at the heart of both founding members, Aleš Primc of For Children and NLS's Franc Kangler, who have been at or close to the centre of Slovenian politics for two decades.

Primc rose to prominence as the initiator of a successful referendum against in-vitro fertilization of single women in 2001 and repeated the feat in the 2012 referendum against a liberal family law and the legislative amendments on marriage equality in 2015.

The successful referendum motions transformed the mid-level civil servant into a central figure of a small but growing anti-abortion and pro-family movement in Slovenia.

Kangler has spent years battling a series of court cases related to his mayorship after he was ousted as mayor of Maribor by massive anti-corruption protests in 2012. Some cases are still pending but most have ended either in acquittals or were eventually overturned on appeal.

As a result, he has become a poster child of a movement that claims Slovenian courts are still dominated by old Communist elites and trials rigged in favour of those in power.

Primc has long been a staunch ally of SDS leader Janez Janša and spearheaded the protests in front of the Ljubljana courthouse in 2014 demanding that Janša be released from prison; when Janša was set free, the group picked up Kangler's case as a cause celebre.

Moreover, both used to be senior members of the People's Party (SLS), Primc as the head of the party's main committee until 2008 and Kangler as MP in 1996-2008 and Maribor mayor in 2006-2012.

United Right currently ranks at 1-2% in most polls and analysts initially considered it as one of the few small players that could conceivably enter parliament.

However, it will have candidates in only six of the eight electoral units since its lists were thrown out in Novo Mesto and Kranj for failing to meet the statutory gender quota.

This makes it unlikely it will muster enough votes, in particular since neither Primc nor his For Children co-president Metka Zevnik, posited as the biggest voter draws, will be on the slate.

Photo galleries and videos

This websie uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.