The Slovenian government will ask its population via a referendum whether the country should remain in NATO. The government of the Eastern European country is doing this because NATO standards for defense spending must increase significantly, and opponents are resisting this.
“There are only two options: either we stay in NATO and pay the membership, or we leave the alliance,” Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob declared on X.
Opponents of the higher NATO defense spending received a majority for an advisory referendum on Friday. Golob is now taking the initiative himself by setting out a non-binding referendum among the population. He hopes that voters who vote for NATO membership will also support the extra spending on defense.
NATO member states agreed at the NATO summit in The Hague to invest 5 percent of GDP in defense in the coming years. In recent years, this spending norm was still at 2 percent, but Slovenia was already unable to meet that.
Now that these expenditures are rising further, Golob is looking for money and support to remain a NATO member. Two coalition parties abandoned the prime minister on Friday and gave the referendum on extra defense budget a majority. Whether the second referendum will go ahead remains unclear.
In Slovenia, the population doubts NATO membership more than average. The most recent poll in 2023 showed that 56 percent of the population still supports membership.