Veteran Jansa faces newcomer Golob in Slovenia polls

Veteran Jansa faces newcomer Golob in Slovenia polls

Veteran Jansa faces newcomer Golob in Slovenia polls

Veteran Jansa faces newcomer Golob in Slovenia polls

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Slovenian nationalist ultimate Janez Jansa faces businessman-turned-baby-kisser, Robert Golob, in polls on Sunday amid anger over the government’s crackdown on civil liberties.

Here is an observation of the two candidates within the Alpine state  Of two million, which changed into the first ex-Yugoslav country to join the European Union in 2004.

War, corruption scandals and a spell in prison — the career of veteran Slovenian right-wing leader Jansa has truly seen it all.

The 63-year-old avid mountain climber is known for his crowd-pleasing rhetoric and combative presence on Twitter, where he attacks opponents and mainstream media alike, echoing the tactics of right-wing populists elsewhere.

Like his close ally Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the father-of-four is a veteran of the pro-democracy movements that brought about the collapse of communism and often accuses the old communist elite of exerting malign influence from the shadows.

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Heading the anti-migrant Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), Jansa has already seen a fair share of drama in his career, serving as prime minister between 2004 and 2008 and again from 2012.

But in 2013, only a year into his second term, he was forced out by a corruption scandal.

Sentenced to two years in jail for bribery, he ran as the SDS candidate for prime minister in parliamentary elections in 2014 from his prison cell.

A constitutional court later overturned his conviction and ordered a retrial, but it could not take place as too much time had elapsed.

Jansa then demanded compensation from the state for having lost the 2014 elections.

He became premier again in 2020 when his predecessor resigned amid coalition infighting.

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In his current two years in office, his government has had run-ins with Brussels over media freedom and rule-of-law issues, with Jansa largely sidelined when his country held the EU rotating presidency last year.

Tens of thousands have staged regular rallies since 2020, accusing Jansa of using the pandemic to attack media freedoms and the judiciary and to undermine the rule of law.

 

– Golob, manager-turned-politician –

 

Golob is a charismatic 55-year-old electrical engineer, who headed a leading state power company until last year when he was not re-appointed.

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Recognised by his shoulder-length curly hairstyle, which Golob says he has had since his youth, he refuses to use Twitter “to avoid the temptation of fast fingers”.

During the campaign, he has toured the country in a bus, and his team has posted his messages and advertisements on Facebook and Instagram.

With a PhD in electrical engineering, the father-of-three also spent some time at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States with a Fulbright scholarship.

A former state secretary in charge of energy, he founded his own energy company in 2002 and ended up heading GEN-I, which promotes solar energy, in 2008 as the result of different merges.

But he failed to be re-appointed last year after the government increased its stake to become GEN-I’s major shareholder.

Not active in politics since 2014, Golob in February took over the Green party to become its president and renamed it Freedom Movement (GS).

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The SDS has taken pains to smear Golob’s image, pointing at his high salary, among other accusations.

This led to Golob releasing his taxes for 2020, which showed his net annual salary to be 196,000 euros ($212,000).

The common month-to-month net wage in Slovenia in 2021 changed into 1,270 euros.

Golob examined fantastic for coronavirus this week, because of this he may want to simplest attend activities online inside the lead-as much as Sunday’s vote.

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