By: T.F.
The most suitable candidate for the position of Prime Minister is Janez Janša, according to a February public opinion poll conducted for Nova24TV by the Parsifal Agency. Namely, 20.3 percent of respondents believe that the current Prime Minister is the most suitable person to lead our country for another term, while only half as many respondents believe that that person is actually the new face of the left, leader of the Freedom Movement (Gibanje svoboda), Robert Golob (10.5 percent). Only 2.5 percent of the respondents see Tanja Fajon, President of the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati), as the most suitable candidate for the position of Prime Minister, while more than half of the respondents (52.1 percent) do not know who the most appropriate candidate for this position would be, and 2 percent believe that it is none of the above.
Two other names have been mentioned in this opinion poll as the possible candidates for the position of Prime Minister: 1.2 percent of the respondents believe that the coordinator of the Left party (Levica), Luka Mesec, is the most suitable candidate, while 2.4 percent of the respondents believe that it is actually the former Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, who resigned two years ago in January, and caused a political crisis right before the epidemic began.
Among the respondents who will definitely attend the election, Janša increased his advantage
Janez Janša has an even bigger advantage when we look at the data from those respondents who will definitely attend the elections. Namely, as many as 28.2 percent of respondents believe that the President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) is the most suitable candidate for the position of Prime Minister. The runner-up is, once again, Robert Golob, who has 13.1 percent of support among those who are sure to go to the polls on the 24th of April. He is followed by Tanja Fajon with 3.8 percent of support from the respondents, while, despite his resignation last year, 2.1 percent of the respondents would like to see Marjan Šarec from the LMŠ party take on the role again. The list also includes Luka Mesec with 1.1 percent support, while 41.2 percent of the respondents answered that they do not know who they will support, while 10.5 percent of the respondents said that they would choose another candidate.
General demographic data on the participants in the survey
The survey included 712 respondents, of which 49.3 percent were women. The average age of the participants is 53.3 years, and the standard deviation is 15.0 years. The majority of the respondents are from the oldest age group (49.0 percent), a slightly smaller share of participants belongs to the middle age group (35.5 percent), and the smallest number of respondents is from the youngest age group (15.5 percent). The majority of the respondents have completed high school (35.3 percent), followed by those with completed high education or higher (28.0 percent), 19.7 percent of respondents have finished vocational school, and 17.0 percent have either completed or have not completed primary school. The majority of the respondents currently reside in a small village or hamlet (56.8 percent), followed by those who live in the city (27.0 percent) or a smaller town (16.3 percent). Most of the respondents are from Central Slovenia (26.0 percent), followed by the Podravska (15.7 percent) and Savinjska (12.1 percent) regions.