Slovenia says it has confirmed foreign influence on last weekend’s election

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) — Slovenia’s intelligence agency has “unequivocally confirmed foreign influences” on last weekend’s parliamentary election, the country’s government said Thursday.

The government said in a statement issued after a meeting of the National Security Council that the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency, or SOVA, “presented concrete activities of a foreign para-intelligence agency as well as contacts with Slovenian entities.”

“The evidence collected, both domestically and abroad, has in the meantime already been handed over to the competent law enforcement authorities, the prosecutor’s office, and the police,” the statement said.

The government statement on Thursday did not name the agency in question.

The election on Sunday ended with no clear winner. With more than 99% of votes counted, Prime Minister Robert Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement won 29 seats in the 90-member assembly, while the opposition right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party, or SDS, won 28.

During the campaign, videos were posted online, apparently showing secretly recorded conversations in which people linked to the government boasted about their political connections. A group of activists and journalists alleged the videos were leaked with the aim of swaying voters. Slovenian authorities have opened an investigation.

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The allegations further claimed the SDS and a private foreign agency were linked to the recordings, based on gathered intelligence. SDS leader Janez Jansa has acknowledged having contacts with an adviser from the Black Cube private intelligence agency but has denied any wrongdoing.

Vojko Volk, the secretary of state for national and international security, said last week that representatives of Black Cube visited Slovenia four times in the past several months, including a street in the capital, Ljubljana, where Jansa’s party has its headquarters.

Prime Minister Golob has urged the European Union to investigate.

Black Cube told the AP in an email that “Black Cube is an intelligence firm which provides services exclusively to clients engaged in business activities worldwide, supporting litigations, arbitrations and white-collar crime cases. Black Cube obtains legal advice in every jurisdiction in which it operates to ensure legality of its activities.”

“Corruption is a phenomenon that harms economies and impedes legitimate business activity. Black Cube will continue uncovering fraud, corruption and asset dissipation in all its cases globally as it has consistently done in the past 15 years,” the agency said.

Slovenia’s government said in a separate statement on March 20 that the head of SOVA, Josko Kadivik presented “a full account of events that took place between 10 and 11 December 2025, along with material evidence of connections of three representatives of the private intelligence corporation Black Cube (Giora Eiland, Liron Tzur and Dan Zorella) to the visit at Trstenjakova ulica 8 in Ljubljana, where the SDS party has its headquarters.”

Kadivik, the statement further said, “presented findings regarding Black Cube’s activities in the territory of Slovenia and abroad, which likewise demonstrate counterintelligence operations against the Republic of Slovenia and foreign interference in Slovenian elections.”