By: Andrej Žitnik (Nova24tv.si)
MEP Romana Tomc is known for fighting against the corporate-leftist political conglomerate in the European Parliament, whose main source of information on the situation in Slovenia is the leftist Peace Institute (Mirovni inštitut) and perhaps also Marko Milosavljević from the Faculty of Social Sciences. At the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where the infamous Rule of Law Report was discussed, MEP Tomc faced the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, with the truth. She said what many Slovenians have been thinking ever since the Rule of Law Report was made public. She confronted Commissioner Reynders with his own bias, politicking and hypocrisy.
MEP Romana Tomc‘s words echoed around the great hall of the European Parliament in Strasbourg like the actions of some ancient hero fighting the invincible gods on Olympus – in this case, the invincible gods in Brussels.
We are publishing MEP Tomc’s speech in its entirety below:
“When the Commission announced the Rule of Law Report, our expectations were high. However, four years later, it is clear – you have not delivered on our expectations. With Slovenia, you have completely missed the point. The rule of law is crumbling, and there has been a complete political takeover of public television, and you are looking the other way, and your colleague Jourová has even visited the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia during the very process of the Court reviewing a constitutionally controversial law, which is unacceptable political pressure. A member of a non-governmental organisation, which was one of your main sources of information and, of course, advocates the political takeover of the media, has suddenly become the President of the Council of our national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia. What would the Report say if this was happening under a right-wing government? Since you have double standards and are not sincerely trying to improve the rule of law, but are acting politically, your Report is nothing but a political pamphlet for me and has no added value.”
Reynders listened and was silent, because he would have been hard-pressed to find a good excuse as to why the Report was written in such a comically biased and politically pandering way to the Slovenian left.
Tomc was already critical of the findings at the presentation of the Report
As MEP Tomc said after the Report’s public release, the Fourth Rule of Law Report has turned into a political tool with no real added value. The shortcomings remain, the reports are politically motivated and do not provide objective findings. The Commission picks and chooses what to include or leave out, neglects key events such as political influence on institutions, and highlights irrelevant statistics. Its assessment of the independence of the judiciary is inconsistent, and the Report does not focus on addressing real problems. Overall, the report on the rule of law requires a critical look and a constructive effort to bring about real improvements that go beyond political motives and a distorted picture of the situation in the country.