In less than six weeks, after the parliamentary elections in Slovenia in which they obtained a clear majority of center-left parties, Robert Golob has managed to form a government and assumes the functions of chief executive with the main objective of “returning Slovenia to the heart of Europe”. The new Foreign Minister, SD President and former MEP Tanja Fajon, has stated in her hearing in Parliament that Slovenia will be oriented more towards the Western EU countries, in terms of European policy, than towards Hungary and Poland, to which the outgoing head of government, Janez Janša, who during his mandate increased the distance with the Brussels authorities, clearly oriented himself.
The Catalan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Victoria Alsina, who has just announced the opening of a new diplomatic representation in Ljubljana to “strengthen the ties of collaboration between Catalonia and Slovenia”, attended the Golob parliamentary investiture session as a guest.
On his first trips abroad, Fajon will visit Brussels and Berlin, to begin mapping out that new and closer relationship. Golob, whose government is made up of the Freedom Movement (GS), the Social Democrats (SD) and the Left Party, with 53 of the 90 parliamentary seats, has also set the main objective of his government to “restore the democratic pillars” and “return to the core of the EU”, thus adding another piece to the geostrategic rearrangement that the invasion of Ukraine has given rise to.
Formally becoming a member of NATO in March 2004, this country is experiencing the invasion of Ukraine with the conviction that if the Russian army is not stopped in Ukraine, Putin will continue to violate the integrity of the new territories in Central Europe. After the Bucha massacre, the government decided in April to limit the number of Russian diplomats posted to the embassy in Ljubljana from 41 to 8, to which Moscow responded in May by expelling four of the members of the Slovenian legation in Russia. , alleging Slovenia’s “baseless attempts to blame Russia for war crimes in Ukraine.” The tension between the two governments is very high and the new Slovenian government seeks diplomatic refuge in the EU.
Robert Golob, a 55-year-old electrical engineer, was until recently unknown to most Slovenians. He founded Gibanje Svoboda last January from an ecologist training without parliamentary representation, after a brief experience in high politics as Secretary of State for Energy between 1999 and 2000 and having directed the state-owned company and main energy supplier of the country Gen-i for the last 16 years. His program focused on the ecological transition and digitalization until the invasion of Ukraine, when security came to the forefront of Slovenian politics. Ljubljana struck a quick deal with Berlin in which it agreed to deliver old Soviet-made T-72 tanks to Ukraine in exchange for newer German ones, the Marder IFV and Fuchs APCs.
Now, Foreign Minister Fajon wants to coordinate more closely with her counterparts in Germany, France and Italy, distancing herself from the Visegrad Group, and resume the discourse in defense of human rights, the rule of law and media freedom Communication. Fajon has also announced that he will pressure Croatia to finally implement the decision of the 2017 Arbitration Court on the border, under threat of blocking Croatia’s accession to Shengen, and also wants to eliminate as soon as possible the wire fences installed on the border as a result of the migration crisis of 2015. Fajon has reported that the portfolio transfer conversation with his predecessor, Anze Logar, “has been an enriching exchange, and an honest talk”, after thanking Anze for the work done.
He has also said that he “looks forward” to the challenges he will face in this portfolio and has reiterated that “Europe is my world, I am assuming this role with a lot of responsibility, with pride and with vision”. “I want the Ministry to become an active space, a laboratory of ideas”, he also said, “to use our full potential more than ever”.
Fajon is aware that “I assume the Ministry at a difficult moment, in which there is a war on European soil, which is causing great fear, not only among the Ukrainians, but also throughout the area and due to the energy crisis and food. We are all looking for ways to end that war as soon as possible and I am strongly committed to supporting Ukraine, with humanitarian aid and post-conflict assistance for reconstruction.”
The new government, however, has projects in its portfolio that NATO will not like very much, such as the halt of the planned purchase of tanks. There will also be bad faces in Brussels in the face of some of his projects, such as an increase in retirement pensions that goes against the current line of cuts and the increases in public spending that will entail the expansion of the cabinet of ministers to 20 members, those announced improvements to the health system and aid against inflation.
