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Southeast Europe
October 20, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 14
Slovenia’s “Instagram king” heads for second presidential term
bne IntelliNews
Slovenian President Borut Pahor started his reelection campaign in an unorthodox manner, embarking on a walking tour of the country, and encouraging ordinary Slovenians to join him for part of the journey as he hiked 40km a day.
The highly Instagrammable walking holiday was in keeping with Pahor’s personal and proactive approach to politics that has earned him the title “the king of Instagram” as well as a reputation as the most modern president in the Western Bal- kans. His high online profile and habit of docu- menting every photogenic moment on social me- dia have also ensured he has remained very much in the public consciousness, despite the largely ceremonial role of the presidency, and have put him on track for re-election on October 22.
Indeed the latest poll from agency Episcenter conducted between October 5 and 13 indicates Pahor will win the election in the first round with 55.5% of the vote, Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported. This would be an improvement on his first presidential election victory in 2012 when the voting went to a second round, even though he managed to trounce the incumbent Danilo Turk in the run-off.
This time around, the long-distance runner
— Pahor is a regular participant in the annual Ljubljana marathon — has a clear lead in the field of nine candidates, five of whom are women. He is also the only non-party candidate in the race. Pahor’s closest competitor is Marjan Sarec, the mayor of Kamnik and a former political satirist.
Neither he nor any of the other candidates look like presenting a serious challenge to Pahor as he presides over a revival of economic growth in the country; Slovenia’s economic contraction during the first two years of his presidency was followed by a turnaround in 2014 and since then growth
in the export-oriented country has remained at around 3% a year.
As president, Pahor has little to do with the econ- omy, but the feel good factor has helped boost his popularity. And this is naturally fuelled by his own publicity on Instagram, where the former model is pictured in a variety of poses attending state events, hiking, running marathons and generally exuding positive vibes and charisma.
The pre-election walking tour of the country, from Goricko in the northeast to Piran on the southwest coast, was another example of how he has gone directly to the people, eschewing the formal chan- nels used by more traditional politicians. He took
a similar approach ahead of his first election when he joined blue-collar workers to do their job for
a day, testing his skills as a butcher, hairdresser, mechanic, construction worker and shop assistant, blending politics with reality TV to great effect.
Yet for an often unconventional politician, Pahor arrived at the presidency by a fairly conventional route. Despite his youthful stint as a model — when he reportedly met US first lady Melania Trump, another Slovenian ex-model —he was part of Slovenia’s political scene even before the country became an independent state in 1991.