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Slovenia's Prime Minister Janša: Struck the rule of law principles of the EU "a blow"
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POOL / REUTERS
Tomaž Vesel is used to criticism and personal attacks.
But the President of the Slovenian Court of Auditors has received so many and hateful tweets in recent months that he felt compelled to react.
Together with the heads of the national data protection authority and the offices for civil rights and the fight against corruption, he drafted a declaration that has probably never been seen in Europe.
One sees with "extreme concern" that state institutions are exposed to "constant and coordinated attacks from the media and social networks".
"Politics" should not regard the work of "independent control authorities as a necessary evil", but must recognize it "as an achievement of civilization," according to the paper of the four most important national control authorities.
Who the authors mean by »politics« is clear to everyone involved: Prime Minister Janez Janša, who has been poisoning the political climate of his country for months with a series of Trump-like tweets.
This week Vesel presented the declaration to three Green MPs who visited Slovenia to find out more about the situation.
Member of the Bundestag Franziska Brantner and two colleagues from the European Parliament, Daniel Freund and Sergej Lagodinsky, wanted to find out the mood in a country that will take over the EU presidency for six months on July 1st - and will also be governed by a prime minister who is himself as a supporter of "illiberal democracy".
Janša wants an authoritarian system based on the Hungarian model
The Green MPs spoke to journalists and whistleblowers, government officials and activists. What they found did not help to calm them down. The political situation in Slovenia is more complicated than the left-liberal mainstream in Western Europe wants to admit. At the same time, it is obvious that Prime Minister Janša wants to transform his country into an authoritarian system based on the Hungarian model. That makes the situation even more dangerous.
Like Viktor Orbán once in Hungary, Janša first tackled the media.
He accused a German TV journalist, whose reports he did not like, of reporting in the style of the Nazi propaganda paper »Stürmer«.
The executive staff of Slovenia's public broadcasting company is being replaced and the state news agency's money is being cut.
At the same time, Janša is trying to set up a government-friendly press area with the help of Hungarian investors.
The head of government does not value the independence of the judiciary.
Janša recently turned down the prosecutors who are supposed to uncover corruption in Slovenia on behalf of the European Public Prosecutor Office (EPPO).
Allegedly because one of the candidates once investigated him.
Now many in Brussels are wondering how a country should represent the EU that has dealt the rule of law principles of the community of states "a blow", as EPPO boss Laura Kövesi recently complained.
Justice Minister Lilijana Kozlovic, who resigned because of the incident, apparently saw it that way.
In the Slovenian government, however, people are very relaxed.
During an appointment in his office, Gašper Dovžan, the responsible State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, said that his country would present itself as a “bridge builder” between the right and left governments of the continent during the EU presidency.
"We stand by liberal democracy and the architecture of the rule of law," he says.
In the dispute over the prosecutors, the new Minister of Justice will soon submit proposals.
"The government has a great interest in solving the problem and complying with all legal requirements."
Is a new Orbán maturing in Slovenia?
Janša's critics in Brussels, on the other hand, fear that the prime minister could use the EU presidency to mobilize his supporters in his own country with radical tones against the EU.
Possibly, they warn, Janša will also resign from the conservative European People's Party to join the organized Eurosceptics from Italy or Hungary.
So is a new Orbán maturing in Slovenia?
Not really, as a look at the political situation in parliament shows.
Janša rules with a minority cabinet, every few weeks he has to survive a motion of no confidence.
He is only in office because the opposition disagrees.
There are numerous media critical of Janša in the country, and many of his plans have come to nothing.
A change of government would force the self-appointed tribune out of office.
However, it is far from certain whether there would be better governance afterwards.
The opposition parties that have ruled for the three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall have produced social stagnation.
Money provided by the EU was embezzled on a large scale, the country is marked by corruption and nepotism.
Hardly anyone knows better than Matej Avbeli how much this slows down development. The rector of the »New University« sits in a stylishly renovated attic in Ljubljana's government district. For years he tried to have his university recognized in Slovenia under EU law. For years, the then ruling anti-Janša parties acted stubbornly to support the established state universities. "There has been a left orbánism in the country for a long time," complains Avbeli, "in which the establishment slips the benefice."
When the German MPs informed their own supporters via video chat at the end of their trip, there was no talk of optimism.
The Bundestag member Brantner speaks of a "worrying direction", "personal attacks" and a style of government along the lines of "Trump and Co.".
EU parliamentarian Lagodinsky identifies a “complex and polarized political climate” that has prevented Slovenia “from building a civil society” for 30 years.
One of the listeners suggests that the EU shouldn't just sit out the six months of the Council Presidency with Janša.
Freund, the MEP, said no.
"Where legal security is threatened, Europe must show a clear edge," he demands.
"The EU must not only intervene when democracy is in its final stages."