Winner May Not Take All in Election, Slovenia’s President Says

(Bloomberg) -- Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa's re-election bid may prove complicated as the nationalist leader who's taken to Donald Trump-style Twitter attacks seeks to extend his premiership in April.

The election winner won't necessarily be granted a mandate to form the next government, Slovenian President Borut Pahor told the country's Delo newspaper in an interview Wednesday. Instead, the candidate who “musters the majority can count on the mandate,” the head of state said.

The comments are a given in Slovenia's complex parliamentary politics, in which well more than a dozen parties will compete in the vote, expected on April 24. But they were a reminder that Jansa -- whose right-wing Democratic Party has a slight lead in the polls -- will also need to secure a stable majority to keep his post.

The top job may also fall to Robert Golob, a former chief executive of energy company Gen-I, whose Freedom Movement is running a close second. Golob and other opposition parties, which have vowed to unseat the rabble-rousing premier, could have a comfortable majority, as polls show Jansa allies struggling to enter parliament.

Jansa, who has spent nearly two years in office picking fights with the media and other European Union leaders, has cast himself in the populist mold of Hungary's Viktor Orban. Both leaders will face tough re-election fights in April.

Pahor's comments referred primarily to 2020, when Jansa secured the necessary support to lead a government two years after an election. His party won the 2018 ballot, but it was Marjan Sarec, who managed to form a majority directed against Jansa.

Sarec resigned two years later after a failed bid to force early elections, paving the way for Jansa.

A vocal supporter of Trump, Jansa has drawn protests at home for alleged corruption, attacks on state media and attempts to consolidate power in the former Yugoslav republic.