Local elections confirm chasm between national, local politics
Ljubljana, 17 December - Local elections in November confirmed and even reinforced a long trend showing that local politics differs significantly from politics at the national level. Independents - both truly and notionally independent parties and lists, including many improbable politicians - remained the strongest force, an indication of people's deep distrust of the political establishment.
Ljubljana
Voters filling out ballots.
Photo: Stanko Gruden/STA
File photo
For the parliamentary and established non-parliamentary parties, the elections were a mixed bag, with the Democrats (SDS) remaining the strongest force at the local level, followed by the Social Democrats (SD), and the non-parliamentary People's Party (SLS), which continues to have a good showing in local elections despite not having been in parliament since 2014.
In Ljubljana, there were no surprises as the capital remains unreachable for the conservatives, despite the SDS's candidate Anže Logar performing far better than the party's candidate four years ago. Victory went to Zoran Janković, who has led the city since 2006, despite being involved in several scandals and court proceedings.
However, things did not turn out so great for another eternal mayor embroiled in scandals, Boris Popovič, who lost in the run-off against Aleš Bržan, despite appealing the result and planning to turn to the Administrative Court.
Overall, the local elections brought mayoral terms to several candidates with somewhat specific past records. These include controversial archives researcher Roman Leljak, who has served prison time, and Ivan Črnkovič, one of the defendants in the Patria corruption trial.
Two more politicians whose careers seemed to be buried made noteworthy comeback attempts, even if they were ultimately defeated in the run-off. Former Mayor Franc Kangler came very close in Maribor, getting 42% against Saša Arsenović despite being forced to resign amid violent protests five years ago, while Pavel Rupar, who served prison time for defrauding the municipality as mayor, got 34% in Tržič.