Ljubljana - Voters are a bit less critical of the government, but despite this, more than half of them see its performance as negative, shows Delo newspaper's August public opinion poll, published on Monday. The largest opposition party, the Democrats (SDS), has meanwhile polled best since September 2018.

A total of 25.9% of those polled have rated the government's performance as positive or very positive (up 4.6 points from July) and 53.3% as negative or very negative (down 2.7 points).

If an election was held tomorrow, 30.6% of the respondents would vote for the ruling Freedom Movement, which is practically on a par with July (30.2%) and June (31%).

Delo says this shows that the recent integration of the SAB and LMŠ parties into the ruling party does not reflect in the Freedom Movement's approval rating.

The opposition SDS would get 22.6% of the vote, up 3.7 points, in what is the strongest support the party has gained in Delo's Barometer poll since September 2018, when pollster Mediana started carrying it out.

The coalition Social Democrats (SD) polled at 7.9%, up almost a point, keeping their third place from July when they overtook the opposition New Slovenia (NSi), which remains fourth with 7.1% despite gaining 0.3 of a point. The coalition Left polled at 3.8%, down almost a point.

The three coalition parties would thus garner a combined 42.3% of the vote, up 0.4 of a point, while the two opposition parties would receive 29.7%, 4 points more.

Support for non-parliamentary parties remains low, not exceeding the 4% threshold to enter parliament. The first behind the parliamentary parties is Resni.ca (Truth), which emerged during the epidemic to oppose coronavirus restrictions, polling at 3%.

The number of undecided voters remains relatively low; around 10% do not know which party they would vote for and almost 5% would not vote for any.

PM Robert Golob has returned to the top of the list of 20 most popular Slovenian politicians, pushing President Borut Pahor to second place, with Health Minister Danijel Bešič Loredan keeping his third place from July.

The poll was carried out between 1 and 4 August among 716 adult Slovenian citizens.