May 21 (SeeNews) - An opposition coalition of anti-immigrant Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and conservative agrarian Slovenian People's Party (SLS) is a favourite to win the European Parliament (EP) elections in the country scheduled for May 26, polls show.
A survey carried out by Ninamedia among 700 people during May 14-16 for state broadcaster RTV Slovenija indicated that the SDS/SLS coalition enjoys the support of 18.9% of the respondents, followed by the centre-left Social Democrats (SD) with 18.1% and the populist List of Marjan Sarec (LMS) with 16.9%.
SD and LMS are members of Slovenia's governing coalition, along with three more parties - the social-liberal Modern Centre Party (SMC), the social-liberal Party of Alenka Bratusek (SAB) and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS).
According to the results of the Ninamedia survey, conservative New Slovenia-Christian Democrats (NSi) party, which is in opposition, is supported by 7.6% of the repondents, followed by DeSUS with 6.8%, eco-socialist Levica with 5.8%, the Slovenian National Party (SNS) with 5.0% and SAB with 2.8%.
A poll conducted by Ljubljana-based Mediana agency during May 8-17 among 732 Slovenian citizens for local daily newspaper Delo also indicated that the SDS/SLS coalition will beat SD and LMS by 12.2% to 11.1% and 10.7%, respectively.
Slovenia's coalition cabinet led by prime minister Marjan Sarec of LMS is the first minority government in the history of the country. It was formed after the centre-right SDS led by Janez Jansa won a snap vote in 2018 but failed to attract partners to form a cabinet.
The government coalition holds 43 of 90 seats in Slovenia's parliament. It was voted into office with support from Levica, which has 9 seats.
SDS won the last European Parliament elections in Slovenia held in 2014 and now controls three of the country's eight seats in the European legislative body.
Following the May 26 vote, Slovenia will again send eight MEPs to Brussels.