A mass of people gathered for a rally in Ljubljana called by the country's largest opposition party on 21 March, denouncing the government's policies and demanding an early election.

Addressing the rally in Congress Square, Janez Janša, the leader of the Democratic Party (SDS), called the Robert Golob government one of the two disasters that befell Slovenia over the past two years, the other being the 2023 floods.

"The political catastrophe we witnessed in June 2022 brought to the surface the rule of the incompetent," the former prime minister told the crowd, which was carrying Slovenian flags and banners with anti-government slogans.

Instead of using "a tremendous majority" in parliament to "responsibly manage the state", the government understands power as "appropriation of the country", he said.

Listing misguided government projects, he spoke of a "theft of cosmic proportions", but said "what has been stolen will have to be paid back".

Janša accused the government of inviting illegal migrants to the country to have more voters, pointing to the opposition to asylum centres planned in towns on the Croatian border.

Referring to the government's "historically low" voter approval ratings, he said this called for an early election, "the only way in a democracy for the nation to get out of this swamp".

According to the party's estimates 15,000 people attended the rally, but police estimates were much lower, TV Slovenija reported.

The rally was attended by senior SDS members, but not by representatives of the fellow opposition party New Slovenia (NSi), which held a panel debate on Slovenia's future at the same time.

That event too called for a change of government, with NSi leader Matej Tonin arguing that the government was destroying Slovenia.

"Slovenia is in a deep political crisis, we have a strike wave and protests all over the country, completely incomprehensible legislative proposals are being adopted, the economic situation is strained," Tonin said.

In preparation for the rally, the SDS put up billboards across the country bearing an image of Golob and the slogan Enough.

Janša called the rally the first of two wake-up calls, the next being the European Parliament elections on 9 June.