The heavy electoral defeat of Janez Jansa, the three-time prime minister, last weekend in Slovenia was the latest setback for populist politics. Despite being founded only in January, Robert Golomb’s liberal, green Freedom Movement won 41 of the 90 seats in the Slovenian parliament. Voters tired of Jansa’s authoritarianism left his Slovenian Democratic Party with 27 seats. The loss of Jansa is also another setback for Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, and his dream of building a free bloc capable of changing the course of the European Union. President Putin has sought to encourage this effort as part of a push
