STA, 27 May 2019 - Political analysts believe the opposition Democrats (SDS/EPP) are in a way a loser of this year's EU vote even if their joint slate with the SLS has won three MEPs and the largest share of the vote. Andraž Zorko and Rok Čakš have however pointed to the success of the Social Democrats (SD/S&D), which have gained one seat.
Although the victory of the joint slate of the SDS and the People's Party (SLS) is convincing, the SDS is actually a loser: it will have one MEP less, since the third one is a member of the SLS, Zorko of pollster Valicon told the STA.
"Even without pairing up with the SLS, the SDS would have won enough votes to secure three seats", as was the case in the 2014-2019 term, believes Zorko.
Agreeing that three SDS+SLS seats somewhat overshadowed the fact that compared to 2014-2019, the SDS has lost one MEP, Čakš believes that by joining forces, the SDS+SLS "took the key step towards victory". He noted the SLS had contributed one MEP and added a significant 5% to the outcome.
Zorko believes the Social Democrats (SD) may be considered the biggest winner, not only picking up an extra seat but nearly trebling the number of votes compared to five years ago.
On the home ground, the SD's result strengthens this coalition party against the LMŠ of PM Marjan Šarec and further weakens the position of the coalition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and especially of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), said Domovina portal editor Čakš.
Both Zorko and Čakš, meanwhile, believe the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) did well, winning two seats in its first EU elections.
"The LMŠ has broken through with two MEPs apart from winning around 74,000 votes, which is an above-average index compared to the general elections," said Zorko.
The analysis are however unanimous in that the opposition Left is the biggest loser, having made several mistakes during the campaign.
"It had an excellent starting position and a spitzenkandidat at EU level, but with awkward moves during the campaign it squandered a seat it was practically already secured," said Čakš.
Zorko believes the Left's biggest mistake was its first-seeded candidate, MP Violeta Tomić, who did not do well in the EU arena.
Another loser is according to Zorko the Pensioners' Party (DeSus) and its leading candidate, outgoing MEP Igor Šoltes.
"It actually lost twice," said Zorko, noting DeSUS lost a seat it had in 2014-2019 (its MEP Ivo Vajgl did not stand for re-election) and Šoltes lost his own seat.
The election outcome has also brought change to the Slovenian centre-right parties, as the centre-right has lost one seat to have four, just as the centre-left parties.
Čakš attributed the fact that the centre-left had gained one seat to its successful campaign in districts where it is strong.
Otherwise there are no major winners or losers among other parties, though Zorko pointed to a small victory for the SMC.
Although its election result is relatively poor, it regained the seat in the Slovenian parliament it lost when its MP Milan Brglez defected to the SD.
Since he was now elected MEP, his seat will be filled by a SMC stand-in deputy because he was elected on the SMC slate last year.
With one MEP, the NSi is where it was five years ago, the only difference being that its new MEP is a woman. "They lost nothing by not joining forces with the SLS, but they were not far from winning a second MEP," said Zorko.
And it was perhaps premature to put a member of the Slovenian minority on the slate in Slovenia, Zorko commented on the Alenka Bratušek Party's (SAB) choice of its frontrunner Angelika Mlinar. "The experiment has fallen through."
