It seems that in Slovenia he has earned the nickname of ‘Marshal Twito’, because every day Janez Jansa is able to send hundreds of tweets to spread his word, an authoritarian tendency on the model of the Yugoslav leader Tito, denounces the opposition and the press often in the crosshairs of his attacks, including personal ones. One like this only collects frost in the European Parliament, ça va sans dire. And it went in this way today at the plenary in Strasbourg, where the Slovenian premier illustrated the objectives of his rotating EU presidency. Socialists, liberals and the left have targeted him: for them, Jansa is a ‘little Orban’ who will offer political material for the next six months. Certainly, a complicated semester begins for the EU.
In his speech to the plenary, Jansa tries in every way to escape the attacks. Be vague. It does not provoke. And he extinguishes the first controversy that awaits him at the gate: that on Slovenia’s failure to appoint judges who will have to be part of the new European prosecutor with powers to control the use of Next Generation Eu funds. “For the autumn there will be an appointment”, he promises, noting however that “Hungary and Poland will not be part of Eppo (European Public Prosecutor office, ed.) And yet they are still given EU funds”. Denmark, Sweden, Ireland will not also be part of the Eppo, but in any case Jansa specifically mentions Budapest and Warsaw, in the EU’s crosshairs for the violations on the rule of law on which Ursula von der Leyen, present today in Strasbourg, promises a “European Commission report in a few weeks”. But for the Slovenian premier, that sentence responds to two objectives.
First, it is a reply to the head of the Eppo, Laura Codruța Kövesi, who in a recent interview with Politico branded Ljubljana’s failure to appoint as a “huge risk because money will continue to flow into Slovenia, but the management system and control of EU funds in Slovenia will really, really suffer ”. Second, it is the attempt not to indulge those who would like to crush him on the positions of Poland and Hungary.
When Donald Trump insisted last fall that he had won the elections against Joe Biden, the nationalist Jansa was the only European leader to support his American ally – on Twitter, of course. But now the time has changed. President of the EU, Jansa leads the Slovenian Democratic Party, ultra-conservative and member of the EPP. And he doesn’t want to run the risk of ending up like Orban, who is out of the Popolari family and currently without a political group in the European Parliament. For this reason, the premier of Ljubljana is a tightrope walker: on the one hand, he tries to keep his distance from the rest of the nationalist interlocutors of Europe, on the other hand he cannot deny them: it would be like denying himself.
And so on the ultra-right manifesto, signed by Orban, the Polish Mateusz Morawiecki, Giorgia Meloni, Matteo Salvini and other sovereign parties, the Slovenian takes refuge in a: “I didn’t have time to read it, but I saw who has signed “. He didn’t sign. But then he adds: “All the parliamentary groups in Parliament have equal legitimacy, there are different opinions regarding the future of Europe. We will find consensus in the conference on the future of Europe, but we must not exclude anyone, otherwise the debate will not be positive. What is certain is that at the beginning of September in Slovenia there will be a debate on the future of the EU, representatives of all European political groups will be invited. It will be the beginning of an exchange on the future of Europe. There are differences but we have to find common ground ”.
Frost prevailed in Strasbourg today. But the next six months, which coincide with the listening phase of the conference on the future of Europe, could be crackling. It will be up to prepare the ground for the conclusions of the conference which should be finalized in the following semester, from January to June 2022, when France will be the EU presidency, precisely in the months of the presidential elections that see once again the nationalist Marine Le Pen. , against an Emmanuel Macron who suffers in the polls and the Republican Xavier Breton who tries to make his way in the race after the successes of the last regional ones. It is also for these reasons of seeking electoral consensus that the liberal ‘Macronian’ group of Renew Europe is the most unleashed against Jansa in the European Parliament.
“For us the importance of the rule of law is an immovable value – attacks the vice president of the Renew Europe group, Malik Azmani – Jansa stop harassing journalists, judges and don’t continue to appoint political friends in the government forces. Appoint a prosecutor Eppo, the Commission should never have approved the Next Generation Eu for Slovenia before the prosecutor Eppo was appointed and we will ask the Commission and the Council not to approve the funds ”. Among other things, the French are the most hostile to the enlargement of the EU to the east, in the Balkans. On the other hand, a topic dear to the premier of Ljubljana and on the menu of the European discussion in the coming months. “We need a debate, I don’t understand who is against”, says Jansa.
On July 1st, at the inauguration ceremony of the Slovenian presidency, the vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans refused to take the ‘family photo’ with Jansa. Von der Leyen sketched. “There are questions and expectations from the European Parliament on fundamental values - says President David Sassoli – we expect quick answers”.
The entire EU of the founding countries suffers from the presidency of an eastern country, pro-European to benefit from EU funds, nationalist on European values. But the premier of Ljubljana does not compromise on the freedom of the press. “Many of you do not know Slovenian and therefore cannot check directly. But if you can, come and check: since I have been in government, Slovenia occupies the highest positions in the world ranking of media freedom ”. His ‘melee’ on twitter against some journalists is undeniable, even with personal attacks. But looking at the index drawn up by ‘Reporters Without Borders’, Slovenia is in 36th place for respect for press freedom, France precedes it by only two positions (34), Italy comes after: 41st place.
–
