The second round of the presidential election in Slovenia was held yesterday. There were two remaining candidates. Here is the result:

• Borut Pahor (Social Democrats), 67.44%
• Danilo Türk (Independent), 32.56%

There is some reaction to the election here.

From the perspective of this blog, the result is all the more interesting because it will lead to a period of cohabitation in Slovenia. Currently, the government is a five-party coalition comprising the Slovenian Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (DeSUS), Gregor Virant’s Civic List, the Slovenian People’s Party, and New Slovenia. President-elect Pahor is from the Social Democrats. Indeed, he was the PM of a Social Democrat-led government until February this year.

Slovenia has had one other, difficult-to-categorise, case of cohabitation. The current period of cohabitation will begin on 23 December with the inauguration of the new president.

It must be remembered that the Slovenian president is perhaps the weakest of all directly elected presidents in the world and does not even have the power to veto legislation, to request a second reading in parliament, or to send a bill the the Constitutional Court. So, the president is very much a figurehead. However, we are likely to expect a slightly more active presidency than in recent years.