With eyes mounted on the Le Pen-Macron face-off in France and the continuing battle in Ukraine, Slovenia has seen an anticipated election victory.

Within the former Yugoslav nation, liberal newcomer Robert Golob defeated populist, Trump-fan Janes Janša, in a hard-fought election tipped as a “referendum on democracy.”

However who’s the person more likely to be the following prime minister? And the way did his Freedom Motion (GS), which launched solely in January, come out of nowhere to win a “shocking” 34.5% share of the vote?

‘Individuals need change’

Till not too long ago, the US-educated Golob had been out of the political limelight in Slovenia.

Now he’s getting ready to take the reins of the mountainous nation of two million individuals, having promised to return Slovenia to “freedom” after the controversial management of the conservative Janša.

“Individuals need change and trusted us,” stated the 55-year-old former head of Slovenia’s most important electrical energy firm throughout his victory speech on Sunday.

“At this time individuals are dancing, however tomorrow a brand new day begins. Tomorrow we’ll begin working onerous.”

The speech, which was delivered from the consolation of Golob’s own residence as he had not too long ago caught Covid, marked a wierd finish to the marketing campaign.

“We’ve been joking that I’ll be the primary prime minister to win [an election] remotely,” he informed Slovenian information web site Žurnal24.si.

All through the marketing campaign, Golob framed the vote on April 24 – which noticed the best voter turnout since 2000 – as “a referendum on democracy,” accusing Janša of undermining democratic establishments and press freedoms since he took over in 2020.

He additionally promised to salvage his nation’s relationship with the EU, which has been badly broken by Janša’s overtures to the Hungarian nationalist chief Viktor Orban.

“This nation has at all times been oriented in the direction of Western Europe and I’m satisfied that we’ll return to our household,” Golob informed AFP throughout the marketing campaign.

‘He promised higher’

Born in 1967, Golob made a profitable profession for himself as an vitality government.

He skilled as an engineer in photo voltaic vitality and have become Slovenia’s Secretary of State for Vitality on the flip of the 2000s.

Golob then went on to discovered his personal vitality firm, GEN-I, in 2002. But the second for his entry into politics got here when the state restructured GEN-I, ousting Golob from his job final 12 months.

After a lot hypothesis and a failed try to type a authorities in 2011, Golob took over a small environmentalist celebration and renamed it Freedom Motion, along with a number of professionals who misplaced or stop their careers beneath Janša’s authorities.

Their agenda was to deal with the setting, open society, normalisation, and the fashionable welfare state.

Politically, Golob is a liberal who advocates private and social accountability, alongside a technocratic strategy to politics

He has pledged to enhance well being care and pursue a transition to a greener financial system, in a coalition authorities with Slovenia’s different centre-left events (the Social Democrats and the Left).

Golob has additionally been energetic in native politics, serving as a metropolis councillor in Nova Gorica, close to the border with Italy.

“When you dwell in a group, you may’t behave as in case you don’t care what occurs outdoors your house. You could contribute to the widespread good, if not on your personal sake, then for the sake of your youngsters,” he informed Primorske Novice in an interview.

‘We’re cautiously optimistic’

A silver-haired, father of three, Golob is “able to studying” from his errors, stated analyst Valdo Miheljak on the College of Ljubljana.

“At first, I took him for a neo-liberal candidate, however he strongly modified his positions,” he stated, particularly in training and well being care.

Golob additionally has “confirmed his oratorical abilities”, Miheljak added.

This allowed him to shake off probably damaging blows from his political opponents, with out denting his reputation, and compensate for the GS’s lack of political expertise.

In the course of the marketing campaign, he got here beneath hearth for his excessive wage of 196,000 euros per 12 months – greater than ten occasions the typical Slovenian wage.

Little is understood about Golob personally and he has been cautious to maintain his household away from the general public eye.

Media allied with Janša reported extensively on alleged monetary wrongdoing linked to his earlier job at GEN-I, in addition to a checking account opened in Romania in his title in 2017.

Golob has claimed this was a case of stolen id and that he solely learnt about it not too long ago, reporting it to the financial institution in query, not the police.

But Golob owes a lot of his political fortunes to fashionable anger at his opponent, the three-times elected Janša.

After botching his nation’s vaccination programme and imposing a strict curfew, Janša lower off funds from Slovenia’s public broadcaster and gave politicians extra sway over the judiciary and police.

Even earlier than campaigning formally started, Golob stated he would help civil society of their makes an attempt to repeal what they see as this dangerous laws. This helped his celebration shoot to the highest of opinion polls.

“We’re cautiously optimistic, we hope he’ll be capable to maintain his commitments,” stated Jansa Jenull, one of many leaders of the protest motion.

“He promised higher,” he added.