Ljubljana’s last-minute change of Commissioner nominees, which delayed President Ursula von der Leyen’s portfolio reveal, ignited a row between PM Robert Golob and the opposition, who he accuses of sabotage.
Slovenia’s 11th-hour Commissioner nominee change has turned into a public squabble between the country’s prime minister and the opposition.
For the populist right-wing SDS, it’s a matter of respecting procedures.
Liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob, however, said it was nothing other than high-stakes obstructionism meant to embarrass him in Brussels.
“It surprises me time and time again how the opposition tries to delay with procedural complications, even those decisions of the government over which it has absolutely no influence, and it has no influence on the selection of the commissioner,” Golob said in a statement on Thursday.
After Tomaž Vesel, the original European Commissioner nominee, resigned last week, the government in Ljubljana named Marta Kos as a replacement candidate on Monday.
Golob hoped that this meant the matter was done and dusted both at home and in Brussels, right on time for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen divvying up portfolios this week.
However, SDS MP Franc Breznik, who chairs the parliamentary committee for EU affairs — in charge of issuing an opinion on the future Commissioner — refused to schedule Kos’ hearing until he received the letter from von der Leyen sent to Golob requesting Vesel’s withdrawal.
While the committee’s opinion is not binding, the law says a hearing must take place before the government’s decision becomes official.
In fact, despite demands to rush Kos’ hearing by Friday, the law grants him as much as two weeks to do so — something that could further delay von der Leyen, much to Golob’s dismay.
Janša: ‘Slapping around of Slovenia’ Golob’s fault
While Golob claimed that von der Leyen made guarantees that Slovenia’s reputation in Brussels wouldn’t take a hit due to the holdup, the prime minister — whose popularity has recently taken a dip — has now come under significant fire for what the opposition claims was catering to the EU’s whims.
Vesel, who presided over Slovenia’s Court of Auditors, did not withdraw his candidacy willingly, but was forced to resign to make way for a woman Commissioner, according to SDS MEP Romana Tomc, who defended Breznik’s decision to put his foot down on Wednesday.
“With this, (Golob) damaged the reputation of Slovenia and did not protect the sovereignty that we have as a member of the European Union,” Tomc said in a post on X.
SDS leader and three-time PM Janez Janša labelled the situation “a shame”.
“This slapping around of Slovenia is only possible in this situation where we have a weak government,” Janša said in a statement last Saturday.
A perennial presence in the Alpine country’s politics for more than three decades, Janša, an ally of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and one of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters in Europe who long emphasised his hard-line leadership was best for Slovenia, often trades barbs with Golob.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile SDS considered Vesel palatable, silently approving him, Kos is a much more divisive figure.
In the run-up to the general election in April 2022, Janša openly accused Kos — then-Golob’s Freedom Movement party vice-president — of her alleged pro-Kremlin stances after she said in an interview that Slovenia was interested in having normal relations with Russia.
Meanwhile, Kos parted ways with the Freedom Movement amid inter-party fallout after she dropped out of the presidential race later that same year for “personal reasons” — something the prime minister’s critics claim she was forced to do, just like Vesel.
While her return to the fold has been seen as a sign that Kos’ relationship with the premier was on the mend, others believe that trying to fix what was not broken only made it worse.
ADVERTISEMENTAccording to Tomc, whose SDS is part of the EPP group in the European Parliament, even if Kos were to get the domestic parliamentary committee’s sign-off on time, she would be deemed unfit for the job and not get the backing of the Slovenian delegation in the European Parliament.
“She resides in Switzerland and not in the EU, she is a former employee of the secret service, and her only visible political role as ambassador … is shadowed by mobbing, which is said to have caused her to end her mandate early,” Tomc said.
Former ambassador to Germany and Switzerland, Kos resigned from her Bern post in 2020 after employees at the embassy made accusations of mismanagement.
Golob refused to comment on the process of appointing Slovenia’s Commissioner until the parliamentary procedure was over.
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