Ex-Comic Stymies Slovenian President's Quick Path to Re-Election
Slovenia's Instagram President on Track to New Term in Election
(Bloomberg) -- Slovenian leader Borut Pahor will compete against comedian-turned-mayor Marjan Sarec for the presidency in a runoff despite winning the first round by a wide margin.
Pahor won 47 percent, the election commission in the euro-area country of 2 million people said on Sunday. That fell short of the majority needed to clinch re-election in the first round. Sarec was runner up with 25 percent, and the two will face off again on Nov. 12.
Forced out of government six years ago, when voters rejected his plan to address a financial crisis that almost drove the country into a Greece-like international bailout, Pahor, 53, has staged a comeback. He was elected to the mostly ceremonial presidency a year later and has built a strong lead in opinion polls.
A former fashion model who has built support via a slick campaign on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook campaign, Pahor has connected with voters by hiking 700 kilometers (430 miles) across Slovenia. That wasn’t enough for a first-round victory. His opponents say the approach underscored how much he’s avoided making tough decisions on national issues including health care, a 2013 government-led bank rescue and a shakeup at the country’s anti-corruption commission.
Hard to Match
“Pahor got almost double the votes that Sarec attracted, and that will be difficult to catch up in the second round,” Otilia Dhand, from Teneo Intelligence in Brussels, said in an emailed note. “Sarec would basically have to get all the votes cast for other candidates in the first round to win.”
Sarec has branded Pahor as an empty suit who fears decision-making. Pahor has defended his tenure, saying the president has limited authority and he can’t intervene “in matters that only deepen divisions.”
Feeling empowered by his showing, Sarec told POP TV he is “ready to do something new in Slovenia, as politics in general have failed to justify trust.” He has campaigned with pledges to bring new faces to top posts in the country and replace officials including Bostjan Jazbec, a governing board member at the European Central Bank.
An economic recovery failed to translate into higher wages and benefits for most Slovenians under Pahor and the government of Prime Minister Miro Cerar after the Adriatic country suffered a two-year recession that lasted until 2013. Gross domestic product grew annual 4.4 percent in the second quarter from 5.1 percent pace in the first three months.
To contact the reporters on this story: Boris Cerni in Ljubljana at bcerni@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Konstantinova in Sofia at ekonstantino@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey