Voter approval ratings for Slovenia's centre-left government and the ruling party have been falling in recent weeks with the polls showing the proportion of opponents outstripping the share of supporters.

A poll run by Mediana for the newspaper Delo on 11 April showed the share of those perceiving the government's job as negative or very negative climb to 45%.

The figure is up almost 10 points on the poll carried by the paper a month ago which showed the rate of negative answers outstrip the rate of positive ones for the first time in this term.

Meanwhile, the share of those who believe the Robert Golob government is doing a positive or a very positive job fell by 4.7 points in a month to 25.8%.

Huge fall in support

Similarly, the most recent poll released by the polling agency Valicon has shown trust in the government dropping by 40 points from its peak in June 2022.

The rate of trust in the government's work has been on the decline since late last year, but the first serious drop into the negative zone, was observed in early 2023.

In February, the value was at -12 and in March it was at -18, the lowest yet, according to a survey carried out by Valicon between 17 and 21 March on a sample of 504 people online.

A week later, Valicon carried out another survey that also asked about trust in the government, which recorded even poorer results for the government, a rate of -37.

Meanwhile, 39% of the respondents said that the current government was more successful than its predecessor and 35% said it was less successful.

A poll published by the commercial broadcaster POP TV in late March showed the government enjoying the support of 41.5% of those questioned, against 42.4% who do not support it.

Ruling party's rating in free fall

The party of Prime Minister Robert Golob has not been spared the negative trend with the latest Delo poll putting it 0.3 points behind the opposition Democrats (SDS).

The Freedom Movement polled at 23% this month, having lost 3.8 points on the previous month, as the SDS gained 1.7 points to 23.3%.

The largest ruling coalition party lost as much as 11.1 points from its high watermark in December, when it commanded a margin of over 15 points ahead of the party of the former PM Janez Janša.

In a similar trend, the Vox Populi poll conducted by Ninamedia and released by the newspaper Dnevnik on 20 March showed the SDS gaining most ground among all parliamentary parties.

In that poll the SDS added almost three percentage points to 22.9% to inch closer to the Freedom Movement, which lost more than a percentage point to 24.9%.

The Freedom Movement won 34.45% of the vote in the April 2022 general election to win 41 seats in the 90-strong National Assembly, the most ever won by a single party since Slovenia went independent.

The other two ruling coalition parties, the Social Democrats (SD) and the Left, polled at 6.2% and 5.1%, respectively, in the latest Delo poll, down a point and up 1.1 points from March.

New Slovenia (NSi), the other opposition party, slid by 0.4 points to 5.6%.

Reflecting on the reasons for falling ratings in the 11 April issue, Delo commentator Ali Žerdin suggested it was because the ruling coalition was not delivering on its ambitious election promises and reform plans.

"What counts in politics (and business) is the wisdom of the work done, not the hectic rush from one rookie-conceived reform to another amateurishly implemented reform," he wrote.

Opposition politician rated best

Anže Logar, an MP for the SDS MP and former foreign minister, remains the best rated politician in the most recent polls released by Delo, POP TV and the newspaper Dnevnik.

However, in the most recent poll, that by Delo, President Nataša Pirc Musar joined Logar on the top, having climbed back after her rival for the presidency pushed her to second in February.

Prime Minister Golob fell from fourth to seventh place in that ranking.