By: Sara Kovač / Nova24tv
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Kyiv this week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She will be accompanied by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell. However, as this is obviously very upsetting to some, they tried to point the finger at Prime Minister Janez Janša, saying how he dares to announce the visit, although the well-known German newspaper die Welt reveals that von der Leyen’s spokesman is the one who revealed the news of a visit to Kyiv on Monday night. Moreover, according to Janša, half of Ukraine already knew the news of the visit on Monday night.
“The meeting will take place ahead of a donors’ conference scheduled for Saturday in Warsaw to raise money for millions of refugees and emigrated persons from the war in Ukraine,” reported Die Welt in connection with the visit, and adding that the press office did not want to release the exact day of the visit. “Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer will also travel to Ukraine. After a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Federal Chancellery confirmed on Tuesday that Nehammer plans to visit Kyiv in the coming days,” they added. Reuters also reports that a spokesman for the President of the European Commission was the one who announced the trip.
“Slovenian diplomats will be joined by Lithuanians in Kyiv. The EU mission is also returning there. The President of the European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will also travel to Kyiv this week. Slovenia has shown the way this time,” said Prime Minister Janez Janša on Twitter in the evening. This, however, obviously confused some, such as Delo correspondent Peter Žerjavič, who claimed that Janša was the one who luxuriously published the news about von der Leyen and Borrell’s visit to Kyiv. To confirm his statement, he cited a clipping from the Politico media, known for bringing the fake scandal surrounding media oppression in Slovenia to the European stage and blaming Janša, the on-duty culprit of the transitional left, for everything. Of course, other media also wrote about this and summed up Žerjavič’s statement as sacred. “Only for narrow-minded people at Delo. Half of Ukraine already knew about the “news” yesterday,” Janša replied to Žerjavić.
Why did Žerjavič help with shaping and spinning the story, where Janša plays the role of the villain, is clear as day. Unlike abroad, the Slovenian left-wing opposition and the media in favour of it attacked the move of Janez Janša, who, together with his Polish and Czech colleagues, visited besieged Kyiv and thus paved the way for everyone else. Among other things, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, visited Kyiv last weekend. As European Commission President von der Leyen is now following the example, the pain is clearly so much greater. The EU is more than obviously united when it comes to helping Ukraine and is aware that words of encouragement alone are not enough. Nevertheless, in one of the interviews, Zelenskyy said that they are really grateful when someone expresses solidarity with their visit. Regarding the visit of the three Prime Ministers, he said: “They were not afraid, they came, they supported us. For us, they have become much bigger leaders of their countries than when I met them in suits and ties,” he said.
Of course, this is not the first time that Žerjavič is poking his nose into Janša’s business. Together with Tanja Fajon’s cheerleader Sead Numanović, he wrote an imaginary “non-paper” story in April last year. It all started when Žerjavič posted a post on Twitter saying that there were rumours in Brussels circles about the existence of the so-called non-paper on the Balkans, prepared by Prime Minister Janša and based on ethnic understanding of borders. “I last met the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, last year. It would be difficult for me to physically hand over anything to him in February or March this year, as the obscure web you cite writes. Slovenia is seriously looking for solutions for the development of the region and the EU perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans, but such records are trying to thwart this very goal,” Janša replied. In any case, Žerjavič soon blamed the Brussels bureaucracy for all the confusion, which resonated for quite some time despite its conceit. Namely, he wrote: “Obviously another day of Brussels confusion. Now the European Council is saying that they cannot confirm that they have received non-paper…” Janša responded to the Delo’s correspondent and wrote the following: “Obviously you are one of the essential components of this confusion. All just to harm Slovenia. In the EU. Horrible.” Of course, there was no trace of apology as any normal person would expect. This probably cannot be expected even now. Especially not because there are parliamentary elections in less than 20 days.