A small central European country, formerly part of Yugoslavia. Freedom House monitors it as one of 29 formerly communist countries.
Janez Jansa, a right-wing populist, challenged Robert Golob's Freedom Movement in the 2026 general election.
Mr Jansa modelled his governing style on that of Viktor Orban of Hungary. A Jansa victory would give Mr Orban a second ally in the European Union alongside Slovakia's Robert Fico, making it harder for the EU to circumvent Hungary's vetoes of aid to Ukraine or to punish it for violating the rule of law.
The campaign was upended by a spy scandal: a website appeared filled with accusations of corruption against people linked to the government, with videos showing them bragging about political connections to apparent foreign businesspeople. Mladina, a local news outlet, reported that operatives from Black Cube, an Israeli political-intelligence firm, had met Mr Jansa at his party's headquarters. He denied involvement; his party wrote on X that "a monument should be erected" to the firm. Mr Golob alleged that "foreign services" were meddling in the election.
Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.