Slovenia is gripped by allegations of foreign election interference and corruption just days before its parliamentary polls on March 22.
An investigative report has linked senior figures from the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube to the centre-right opposition leader Janez Janša. His Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) is locked in a tight contest with Prime Minister Robert Golob’s centre-left coalition.
The scandal centres on a series of leaked audio recordings and covertly filmed videos that surfaced in recent weeks, alleging corruption among senior figures tied to Golob’s Freedom Movement (Svoboda) and its coalition partners.
The material, disseminated via an anonymous Facebook profile “Maske padajo” (“Masks are Falling”) and a website called anti-corruption2026.com, has dominated the campaign and prompted accusations of corruption and of orchestrated disinformation.
The recordings allege systemic corruption, influence peddling and misuse of public funds, particularly in public procurement and business dealings.
A central allegation, but not the only one, revolves around the Ministry of Justice’s controversial acquisition of a dilapidated building at Litijska Street 51 in Ljubljana in late 2023.
The property was purchased for €7.7 million to serve as additional court premises, despite its poor condition and lack of immediate usability. The seller, businessman Sebastijan Vežnaver, had acquired the same building in 2019 for just €1.7 million, raising suspicions of inflated pricing and potential kickbacks.
Former justice ministe Švarc Pipan signed off on the deal. In the leaked videos, she is heard discussing the transaction, admitting to pressures to finalise it hastily before the end of 2023, something also corroborated by e-mails.
Pipan has denied wrongdoing but resigned in early 2024 amid the fallout, along with several other officials.
The scandal has since expanded, with criminal investigations reportedly targeting a wider circle, potentially including finance minister Klemen Boštjančič and Golob.
While the authenticity of the leaks remains unverified and is under investigation by Slovenian authorities, they have sparked resignations and intensified pre-election scrutiny.
According to a detailed investigation published yesterday by the Slovenian weekly Mladina, the alleged corruption was unearthed by Israelis.
It pointed to four people, including Dan Zorella — co-founder and CEO of Black Cube — and retired Major General Giora Eiland, former head of Israel’s National Security Council and a longtime Black Cube adviser.
The pair, accompanied by two others, travelled directly to SDS headquarters on Trstenjakova Street in Ljubljana.
There they met Janša for approximately two hours.
Their aircraft departed for Rome later that day, flight-tracking data and anonymous sources claim, although one passenger reportedly remained in Slovenia.
Flight records show the same jet visited Ljubljana three times between November 2025 and February 2026.
Black Cube, founded in 2010 by former Israeli Defence Forces officers and operating from Tel Aviv, London and Madrid, has a documented history of using false identities, shell companies and covert recordings to gather compromising material.
Its methods mirror operations previously linked to the firm in Hungary ahead of elections in 2018 and 2022, where alleged recordings of opposition figures were leaked to pro-government media.
In Slovenia, the pattern appears identical. Targets were approached under the guise of a fictitious British investment fund, Stockard Capital, which claimed interest in data centres and energy projects.
Former justice minister Dominika Švarc Pipan and lawyer Nina Zidar Klemenčič were lured to meetings in Vienna and elsewhere; travel costs were covered, conversations secretly recorded and the fund’s online presence then vanished.
The resulting videos and audio clips emerged anonymously shortly before the election, fuelling corruption claims.
The timing and foreign dimension have sharpened existing tensions.
Golob’s centre-left government has taken a strongly pro-Palestinian stance, recognising the State of Palestine in June 2024 — one of the first EU members to do so in response to the Gaza conflict — and barring far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entry.
Janša’s SDS, by contrast, has consistently supported Israel, opposed the Palestine recognition, launched a parliamentary Israel caucus in 2025,and pledged to reverse the policy if returned to power.
Opposition figures have portrayed the leaks as exposing genuine wrongdoing in the ruling coalition.
SDS responded to the Mladina report by stating it had never heard of Black Cube but suggested “a monument should be erected in Ljubljana to honour the company for its part in exposing corruption in Slovenia”.
Governing parties have reacted with outrage, ignoring the possible corruption.
Foreign minister Tanja Fajon (Social Democrats) called the affair “a direct attack” on Slovenian sovereignty and an attempt to undermine electoral trust.
The Left party demanded a full investigation.
Slovenia’s President Nataša Pirc Musar urged authorities to act swiftly.
The National Security Council has been convened and the parliamentary intelligence oversight commission (KNOVS) has questioned the Slovenian intelligence service SOVA and police.
No confirmation of state-level involvement has emerged.
Black Cube has previously faced legal scrutiny. In Romania in 2016, Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus, former Israeli intelligence officers and co-founders of Black Cube, received suspended sentences for attempting to intimidate an anti-corruption prosecutor and hacking her email.
The firm also worked for Harvey Weinstein in 2016, using similar tactics to discredit his accusers. It denies wrongdoing and insists it operates legally, focusing on evidence-gathering for litigation.
Slovenian authorities are now examining whether the leaks constitute foreign interference in a democratic election, next to working on the accusations of corruption, although no evidence has linked the operation directly to the Israeli Government.
The scandal has overshadowed policy debate. Polls show a close race between Golob’s coalition and Janša’s centre-right bloc.
