Byzantine Blog

Slovenian Officials to Curb their Dictatorial Urges

Prime Minister of Portugal sharply criticized Slovenian premier, assessing that Slovenian officials are prone to crossing the line of common decency.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates reacted to the statement by the current EU-presiding Slovenian Premier Janez Jansa who “cautioned” Portugal, suggesting that the referendum Portugal intended to hold regarding Lisbon Agreement is “potentially perilous.”

The treaty, signed in Lisbon last month, is a rotten egg of the EU elite, which effectively replaces the failed EU constitution, torpedoed by referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005.

Slovenian premier took upon himself to publicly advise state of Portugal against the referendum, warning that, by allowing a broad democratic deliberation on whether Portuguese citizens approve of the Lisbon Agreement, Portugal is giving a bad example to other EU states, and may influence others to do the same.

“These are statements worthy of contempt, since Portugal has no need for Slovenian advice on what it can, or must not do regarding the European project,” Jose Socrates told Portuguese parliament, reminding that Portugal, during its recent EU presidency, has never commented the methods of ratification and allowed each individual EU member state to reach its own decisions on these issues.

Three Days of EU Presidency, Three Offenses and Extra Blunders

This is already the third criticism from statesmen addressed to Slovenian officials in the past few days, as Slovenia has taken over the EU presidency from Portugal.

Apart from Portuguese Prime Minister, leader of the Bosnia-Herzegovina tripartite presidency, Croat Zeljko Komsic, has also criticized Slovenian premier’s statement that Bosnia-Herzegovina is the bigger problem than Serbian province of Kosovo-Metoija.

Adviser to Serbian Prime Minister Kostunica, Srdjan Djuric, yesterday criticized a statement by Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who said that it was a "false dilemma" that the EU either must sign the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia or send a mission to Kosovo.

“It would be a good thing if Dimitrij Rupel did not allow himself the liberty of deciding on behalf of Serbia,” Djuric said.

“Whether it is a false dilemma that the EU must choose between signing the SAA with Serbia and the decision to send a mission to implement the rejected Ahtisaari plan, Dimitrij Rupel will find out on January 28,” said Djuric.

“Serbia has its own, legitimately elected state institutions that are reaching decisions in the name of Serbia, and it would be at least decent if Rupel acknowledged that fact, while keeping in mind that neither he, nor Slovenia, can ever speak in Serbia’s name,” Djuric said.

Slovenian Officials Need Discipline and Training to Overcome Bad Habits

Commenting the fact Slovenian officials seem to have formed a bad habit of issuing statements akin to meddling and giving unsolicited advice to sovereign states, Slovenian President Danilo Turk yesterday said that, as a presiding EU state, Slovenia is significantly more “in the limelight” than before. According to Turk, this is why Slovenian politicians sometimes speak more bluntly than it would be appropriate, which is why they need “a bit of discipline and training” to overcome their bad habits.

Some of those bad habits that could prove rather difficult to shake off include the false sense of superiority Slovenians had a tendency to develop in former Yugoslavia towards all the other nations Yugoslavia was comprised of. Put them in another version of Yugoslavia, like the EU, and they figure it’s only normal that they dominate once again.

Meanwhile, German government was dismayed to find there was no translation into German during the informal ministerial meetings, under the auspices of Slovenian EU presidency.

In the year 2000, German government instructed its members not to take part in ministerial summits where the hosts have not provided German translations. Before that, in 1999, Germany and Austria boycotted two ministerial summits during the Finnish EU presidency, precisely because there was no translation into German.

After sharp admonishment by the German government, Slovenia promised to provide German translation during the next ministerial meeting it will host.

Little State, Little People — Big Appetites and Manipulations

Despite Slovenian officials’ painfully obvious efforts to show their best face to the world, many issues about Slovenian democracy, freedom and human rights remain swept under the rug and kept carefully hidden from the rest of the world.

Few months before Slovenia took over the EU presidency, 571 Slovenian journalist has signed the petition demanding an end to censorship and political pressures on Slovenian media. Reporters have sent petition to European institutions and the leading politicians of the European states, to which the Slovenian government responded by sharply attacking the journalists, accusing them of “smearing Slovenian image abroad.”

Now, the Slovenian journalists are demanding that their government apologizes and explains the materials it delivered among foreign reporters which, according to Slovenian journalists, paints a false picture of the alleged media freedom in Slovenia.

Foreign reporters who are following Slovenia’s EU presidency on Monday received from the Slovenian government Communications Office propaganda pamphlets with quotes by the Slovenian journalists which, according to Slovenian reporters, aim to demonstrate there is supposedly a complete freedom of media in Slovenia. The things have gotten complicated when the cited journalists warned their words have been taken out of context and misused to deceive and form a false impression.

President of the Slovenian Journalists’ Society, Grega Repovz, labeled the pamphlets as pure propaganda. He requested from the government’s Communications Office the list of all foreign reporters who have received these pamphlets, because Slovenian journalists wish to share their own views on freedom or lack of freedom in Slovenian media. At the same time, Repovz adds that Slovenian reporters expected the government to explain to foreign reporters that the quotations cited have been taken out of context in order to deceive, as well as that government apologizes both to the foreign reporters to whom it has sent these propaganda pamphlets, and to Slovenian reporters whose statements have been misused.

Slovenian government’s Communication office stated it will respond to Slovenian reporters’ criticism in writing.