SGI 2024 | Slovenia | Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Recent Governments Experts

SGI experts on Slovenia

Alenka Krašovec

Alenka Krašovec is a professor at the University of Ljubljana, holding the chair of public policy analysis and public administration.

Her research focuses on the politics of Slovenia and the former Yugoslav republics, Europeanization, democracy and party competition. Alenka Krašovec received her PhD from the University of Ljubljana in 2007.

Meta Novak

Meta Novak, associate professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, and coordinator of the Policy Analysis PhD programme. She has led one Jean Monnet project, and is presently the holder of a Jean Monnet module. Her main research interest lies in the role of interest groups in EU policymaking. She teaches courses on Policy Analysis and Interest groups

Tomaž Deželan

Tomaž Deželan is a professor of political science at the University of Ljubljana. He continued his research career at various research institutions abroad (e.g. U Edinburgh, U Tallinn) and holds the Jean Monnet Chair for Civic Education. He is a member of a group of European researchers in the field of youth within the Youth Partnership (Council of Europe and European Commission) and works as an expert in the field of youth, political participation, employability and improvement/quality assurance in education. He is the coordinator of the doctoral study program in American Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. In the aforementioned areas, he coordinated more than 30 research and application projects worth several million euros and cooperated with many international governmental and non-governmental organizations and initiatives (OSCE ODIHR, OSCE, European Youth Forum, Peace Nexus, International IDEA, Social Progress Imperative, Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament, EACEA, ICF, WYG Consulting and others) and governments (Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Latvia, Montenegro). Prof. Deželan was one of the key experts of the Slovenian presidency of the EU in the field of youth and co-author of the adopted Council resolutions. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals, 25 chapters in edited collections, 10 scientific monographs and the editor of several edited collections and special issues of journals (ISI ranking) and the author of several political, positional and advocacy documents for various organizations (OSCE, International IDEA, EYF).

Petra Guasti (Coordinator)

Petra Guasti is an Associate Professor of Democratic Theory at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences (on leave). Between 2016 and 2021 served as a senior researcher, an Interim Professor and adjunct lecturer at the Goethe University Frankfurt. In April 2021 she completed her (cumulative) habilitation Democracy Disrupted at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Petra received her doctoral degree in political science from the University of Bremen. She also previously earned a doctoral degree in political sociology from the Charles University in Prague. In March 2019, she completed an eight-month Visiting Democracy Fellowship at Harvard University’s Ash Centre for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. She serves as an expert for Bertelsmann Transformation Index, Sustainable Governance Indicators for over a decade, and V-Dem since 2018. In 2020 she has been appointed to the expert board of the Nation in Transit (Freedom House).

Multiple elections
during period

From January 2022 to January 2024, Slovenia experienced several significant political events. Regular elections to the National Assembly took place in April 2022, followed by presidential and local elections, as well as three nationwide referendums in the autumn. All these elections met high standards of electoral integrity. The number of parties entering the National Assembly decreased to five, primarily due to tactical voting and a windfall effect.

Emergence of new political movement

Dissatisfaction with COVID-19 restrictions and democratic regression under the previous center-right coalition government led by the Slovenian Democratic Party prompted the election of the newly founded Freedom Movement (GS) in 2022. The Freedom Movement received the most support, winning 45.5% of the seats in the Assembly. They formed a center-left majority government with the Social Democrats (SD) and The Left (Levica) on June 1, 2022.

Civil society involvement increases

Prime Minister Golob’s government pledged numerous reforms and greater involvement of civil society in political decision-making. Despite criticism that Slovenia is governed by an overly left-wing civil society and the perceived tolerance toward the Golob government, significant legislative proposals were supported and adopted. However, of the 122 commitments made by the center-left governing parties to the civil society network, 113 were not fulfilled after the first year in power.

Criticism of public
health system

Over the past two years, the social movement, which had criticized the democratic regression during the Janša government, has also been particularly critical of the public health system under the Golob government. The social dialogue in the Economic and Social Council was again interrupted, as it had been under the Janša government.

Key reforms go unaddressed

Key reforms related to the pension system, public sector wages, real estate legislation, tax laws, and education were listed, with healthcare reforms deemed the most urgent. Yet, most of these reforms remained suspended or unaddressed within two years. Some changes, such as replacing supplementary health insurance with compulsory contributions and adopting the long-term care law, were viewed positively. However, challenges persisted in migration policy and other sectors due to labor shortages.

Floods drive difficult reform decisions

Slovenia experienced catastrophic floods in August 2023, highlighting the need for difficult reform decisions amidst changing fiscal rules. The Golob government also faced challenges with corruption risks and ensuring high integrity among politicians and civil servants. While improvements in media freedom were observed toward the end of 2023, challenges remained in the small media market, characterized by public broadcasters’ ownership concentration and poor financial situations.

Energy crisis
handled well

Although Slovenia has a comprehensive regulatory framework, implementation issues persisted from 2022 to 2024, impacting various sectors, particularly the environment. Nonetheless, measures to address the energy crisis under the Golob government were generally deemed appropriate and relatively well-implemented. The government’s pledge to increase official development assistance to 0.33% of gross national income by 2030 remained a significant commitment, with €159.65 million allocated for international development cooperation in 2022, representing 0.29% of GNI.