Slovenia: Conservative candidate in presidential election

Former Slovenian Foreign Minister Anse Lokar won Sunday’s first round of Slovenia’s presidential election, according to partial results. With nearly 60% of the votes counted, the 46-year-old conservative politician won 33.75% of the vote, while his center-left rival, 54-year-old Natasa Birk Musar, won 27%.

1.7 million voters in the tiny Alpine country will return to the polls on November 13. Anze Logar is one of the main deputies of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, who was ousted in the spring after a controversial decree with many demonstrations.

After this heavy defeat in the Assembly elections, his victory will restore color to the Conservative camp. If he ran a “moderate campaign” in his words and presented himself as an independent candidate, he invited Janus Jansa to his headquarters on Sunday evening to celebrate his first place.

His opponent, Natasza Birk Musar, is a media lawyer who hopes to become the first female president from the former Yugoslavia, a member of the European Union since 2004. “I think the time has come for Slovenia”, he announced during the vote, saying he was above “party fights”.

A former head of the Slovenian Data Protection Commission, he made a name for himself by representing the interests of former US first lady Melania Trump, who is from Slovenia. A target of attacks because of her husband’s lucrative investment activities, she gained the support of Milan Kučan, the first to hold the post of head of state in independent Slovenia in 1991.

After the first results were released, Natasa Birk Musar appealed to “left-wing voters”. Liberal Prime Minister Robert Gollop, who defeated Janus Jansa in April, has hinted at backing his candidate, Social Democrat Milan Brackles (16% of the vote), after he lost.

The winner of the vote will succeed Borut Bahor, 58, who has served two five-year terms. Nicknamed the “Instagram” leader, this former model and member of the Social Democratic Party has more than 134,000 subscribers on the social network, where she often posts personal pictures.