Slovenian parliamentary speaker Zoran Stevanovic calls for NATO exit referendum

Parliamentary speaker Zoran Stevanovic announced a proposal for a referendum on Slovenia’s NATO membership to be held alongside the 15 November local elections. He argued that the high costs of NATO commitments, including the 44 million‑euro (about 50 million USD) military aid to Ukraine announced by Prime Minister Janez Janša at the NATO summit in Ankara, strain Slovenia’s finances. Stevanovic said, “Bu 44 milyon euroya şu anda Slovenya’nın çok daha fazla ihtiyacı var… If we aim for peace, something must change.”

The foreign minister Tone Kajzer and the ruling SDS party responded that NATO remains the cornerstone of Slovenia’s security and dismissed the referendum as a distraction. Opposition parties and civil groups have staged protests, while experts note that no NATO member has ever left the alliance and that any exit would raise serious security concerns.

The proposal has sparked a heated domestic debate over defence spending, with the government planning to increase defence budgets to 5 % of GDP by 2035, but the referendum is considered unlikely to materialise in the near term.