Presidential elections were held in

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

on 23 October 2022. Incumbent

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Borut Pahor Borut Pahor (; born 2 November 1963) is a Slovenian politician who served as President of Slovenia from 2012 to 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 2008 to 2012. A longtime member and former president of the Social D ...

was ineligible to run for a third consecutive term due to term limits. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a runoff between the top two placing candidates, former foreign minister

Anže Logar Anže Logar (born 15 May 1976) is a Slovenian politician who was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the third Janša cabinet from March 2020 to June 2022. Logar served as the director of the Government Communication Office in both Governments of Jan ...

, an SDS member running as an independent, and independent former

Information Commissioner The role of information commissioner differs from nation to nation. Most commonly it is a title given to a government regulator in the fields of freedom of information and the protection of personal data in the widest sense. The office often fun ...

Nataša Pirc Musar Nataša Pirc Musar (born May 9, 1968) is a Slovenian attorney, author and politician who has served as the 5th President of Slovenia since 2022. She is a former information commissioner, Information Commissioner (2004–2014), a former journalis ...

, took place on 13 November 2022. Pirc Musar won the runoff with 53.86% of the vote, becoming the first female president of Slovenia. Logar acknowledged his defeat and congratulated Pirc Musar on her victory.

Important dates

Electoral system

The President of Slovenia is elected using the

two-round system The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, the top two candidates contest a runoff. Under Slovenia's election law, candidates for president are required to meet one of three criteria: * The support of ten members of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

* The support of one or more political parties and either three members of the National Assembly or signatures from 3,000 voters * Signatures from 5,000 voters Each political party could support only one candidate.

Candidates

*Nataša Pirc Musar is a former president of the Slovenian Red Cross, a prominent human rights lawyer and was head of the data protection agency.. She stands for a center-left government and a pro-European Union policy. In view of

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

, she believed that Russia broke

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

. Pirc Musar ran as an independent, but her campaign was supported by two former presidents,

Milan Kučan Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovenian former politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 1991 to 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of Slovenia#Socialist Republic of Slovenia, Pres ...

and

Danilo Türk Danilo Türk (; born 19 February 1952) is a Slovenian diplomat, professor of international law, human rights expert, and political figure who served as President of Slovenia from 2007 to 2012. He was the first Slovene ambassador to the United Nat ...

as well as the

Pirate party Pirate Party is a label adopted by various Political party, political parties worldwide that share a set of values and policies focused on Civil and political rights, civil rights in the digital age. The fundamental principles of Pirate Partie ...

. *Anže Logar was a longtime member of the

Slovenian Democratic Party The Slovenian Democratic Party (, SDS), formerly the Social Democratic Party of Slovenia (, SDSS), is a conservative parliamentary party; it is also one of the largest parties in Slovenia, with approximately 30,000 reported members in 2013. It ...

(SDS) and a former

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. He chose to officially be an independent candidate which was viewed as a distancing himself from the ousted government. *Milan Brglez was a candidate of the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

(SD) supported by the Freedom Movement, and incumbent prime minister

Robert Golob Robert Golob (born 23 January 1967) is a Slovenian businessman and politician, serving as Prime Minister of Slovenia and leader of the Freedom Movement since 2022. Early life and education Golob obtained his PhD in electrical engineering at th ...

Advanced to runoff

Did not advance to runoff

Opinion polls

Graph

First round

Second round

Results

In the first round

received 34% of the voter share against 27% for

Milan Brglez Milan Brglez (; born 1 September 1967) is a Slovenian political scientist and politician who served as Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia from 2014 to 2018. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019. A member ...

was third with around 15%. For the second round Golob then turned his support to Pirc Musar. In the run-off, independent Pirc Musar was expected to win since August 2022. Logar also ran as an independent, but was a member of the

(SDS), which lost parliamentary elections six months prior. Logar was therefore associated with Janša, who was accused with attempting to restrict the freedom of expression and undermine the independence of the judiciary during his term in office. In the evening of 13 November 2022, the electoral commission reported that Pirc Musar won with nearly 54% of the vote, after which Logar conceded defeat and congratulated Pirc Musar on her victory. Pirc Musar will become Slovenia's first female president, commander-in-chief of the

Slovenian Army The Slovenian Ground Force is the primary component of Slovenian Armed Forces. History The current Slovenian Armed Forces are descended from the Territorial Defense of the Republic of Slovenia (''Teritorialna Obramba Republike Slovenije''; ''T ...

and also be responsible for appointing the head of the Central Bank of Slovenia.

References

{{Slovenian elections Presidential elections in Slovenia

Presidential Presidential may refer to: * "Presidential" (song), a 2005 song by YoungBloodZ * Presidential Airways (charter), an American charter airline based in Florida * Presidential Airways (scheduled), an American passenger airline active in the 1980s * ...