"Boom" – Slovenia wants to leave NATO?

Analysts believe this is a result of his political inexperience, and potentially also a preparation for next year&rsquo;s parliamentary elections. However, polls show that former Prime Minister Janez Jan&scaron;a&rsquo;s party is now ahead of Golob, writes Politico.It all started, so to speak, when last week, Slovenia&rsquo;s parliament voted in favor of a proposal by Golob&rsquo;s coalition partner, the Left, to hold a consultative referendum on increasing defense spending to three percent of GDP by 2030.Golob&rsquo;s Movement for Freedom party voted against the proposal after the prime minister signed up to NATO&rsquo;s goal of spending five percent of GDP on defense by 2035 in The Hague last month.However, the rift in the government was further accentuated after the Social Democrats sided with the opposition and supported the plan for a plebiscite.A disgruntled Golob then floated the idea that Slovenia should hold another referendum on whether it should even be a member of NATO, which it joined in 2004.&quot;There are only two possible paths: either we stay in the alliance and pay our membership fees, or we leave the alliance. Everything else is populist deception of citizens,&quot; Golob said.Slovenia, as Politico reminds us, is at the bottom of the list of NATO countries in terms of defense spending, allocating only 1.29 percent of GDP.Total confusionPoliticians are now so divided over the recent NATO agreement to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP by 2035 that Golob&rsquo;s coalition partners were baffled by his referendum maneuver.But now, concerns about Slovenia&rsquo;s possible exit from NATO have spread beyond political officials.Jelena Juvan, a defense professor at the University of Ljubljana, said the government is acting irresponsibly.&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s very dangerous and irresponsible of our government, because they are essentially gambling with the future of the nation, especially given the size of Slovenia and the readiness of our armed forces. They are trying to resolve internal political disputes with this, which is inappropriate,&rdquo; she told Politico.Miro Haček, a professor of political science at the university, said Golob&rsquo;s political inexperience was to blame.&quot;He is not used to losing votes. He feels like he is being blackmailed by his coalition partners. This was the first time in this mandate that both of his coalition partners voted against him. He has little political experience and did not foresee this scenario happening,&quot; Haček said.Irena Joveva, a member of the European Parliament from Golob&#39;s party, who is a member of the &quot;Renew Europe&quot; group in Brussels, said the call for a referendum on NATO membership was a &quot;calculated decision.&quot;&quot;With national elections approaching next spring, the topic of increased military spending has risen to the top of the political agenda and there is a risk that it will be used as a populist maneuver to gain support. While we acknowledge that our citizens may not generally support increased military spending, we believe that they recognize the security and benefits that come from NATO membership,&quot; she said.Start of the campaign for the parliamentary electionsDespite a recent poll showing that only half of Slovenia&#39;s population supports NATO, none of the major parties are advocating withdrawal from the military alliance.The only major party advocating for NATO exit is the Left.&quot;I would say that this is 99 percent for internal reasons and actually has nothing to do with the real desire of anyone in Slovenia to leave NATO,&quot; Haček said.Both Haček and Juvan interpret Golob&#39;s &quot;bombshell&quot; as the start of the campaign for parliamentary elections in the spring of 2026.Current polls show 29 percent support for the party of former Prime Minister Janez Jan&scaron;a, while Golob is lagging behind with 20 percent.However, using NATO membership as a bargaining chip to resolve domestic issues in the current geopolitical context could backfire on politicians, analysts say.&quot;This is a dangerous move. Slovenia is one of the EU members with the friendliest attitude towards Russia. This could become a training ground for Russia to interfere and try to influence the end result,&quot; Haček warned, Blic reported.

"Boom" – Slovenia wants to leave NATO?

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