By: Dr Metod Berlec
In recent days, the Slovenian political scene has been preoccupied with the red card given to the would-be Slovenian candidate for European Commissioner, Tomaž Vesel, or rather to Robert Golob, by the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen. She was dissatisfied with Golob’s proposal because she wanted Slovenia to nominate a female candidate. The EC, in line with modern progressive trends, aims to be more “gender balanced”.
This situation left the Slovenian Prime Minister in a difficult position. In late April, at the Svoboda Festival in Zbilje, Golob had pompously introduced Tomaž Vesel as the coalition’s candidate for European Commissioner. At that time, Golob had not yet finalised the lead candidate for the Gibanje Svoboda’s European election list, nor had he consulted the coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SD) and the Levica, on the choice for Slovenia’s Commissioner candidate. Instead, he presented them with a fait accompli. Moreover, Golob had confidently insisted that the Slovenian government would stick with Vesel as the Commissioner candidate and would not send any alternate names to Brussels for consideration – specifically, not a female candidate as requested by von der Leyen.
Golob’s confidence, however, evaporated overnight as he was forced to quickly find a new candidate. While it was once assumed that the transitional left had a large pool of candidates for top political positions (including European-level roles), this situation proved otherwise. Years of negative selection, based on the principle of “anyone but Janša” or favouring candidates simply because they belonged to the transitional left, had resulted in the elevation of incompetent, opportunistic, and egocentric individuals, many of whom lacked substance and rose to power through connections or family ties. The mention of potential candidates like Tanja Fajon, Marta Kos, and Marjeta Jager for Slovenia’s new nomination hinted that Golob’s government was far from being able to offer Ursula von der Leyen a standout candidate. They could not produce someone of the calibre of former European Commissioner Janez Potočnik.
Golob ultimately chose Marta Kos under immense time pressure, evidenced by the fact that Kos had publicly resigned from the Gibanje Svoboda party in protest at the end of 2022. Not long before that, Kos had been the Svoboda’s candidate for President of Slovenia. However, Golob had forced her to withdraw from the race, as power brokers on the transitional left feared that the left-wing vote would be too fragmented. They backed Nataša Pirc Musar instead, and they succeeded. Upon resigning from the Svoboda party, Kos stated that the party was “no longer hers”, directing criticism at Golob, whom she accused of leading the movement in an undemocratic, authoritarian manner. She also remarked that the conditions that had led to her withdrawal from the presidential race and resignation as vice-president of the party had not changed. “On the contrary, they remain the same and are intensifying. This is also evident in the current conflict regarding Tatjana Bobnar and her resignation as Minister of the Interior. I have always stood for democratic principles, professionalism, the values of incorruptibility, equality, and human rights. I can say the same for Tatjana Bobnar. All her actions have always been committed to these principles,” she stated. She further emphasised that her departure is a direct show of support for Bobnar and, at the same time, a warning that the future of respecting democratic standards should not depend on a few individuals, but rather on a culture of dialogue that is rooted in values.
The recent developments suggest that the next European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen may not be as progressive or left leaning as initially expected. Out of the 27 members of the new Commission, 14 to 15 will come from the European People’s Party (EPP), 4 to 5 from the Socialists (PES/S&D), and the rest will be from liberals, national conservatives, and independents. Furthermore, developments in the European Parliament indicate that right-of-centre and right-wing parties will have more influence than before, despite the EPP’s decision to create a “firewall” against the third-largest political group in the Parliament, the Patriots for Europe, whom they considered too far-right. Notably, they did not create a similar barrier against the far left in Europe. This means that the decision to exclude the patriotic group from leadership roles in the European Parliament was undemocratic. The coming weeks and months will reveal how much further to the right both the European Parliament and the European Commission will shift.