Von der Leyen, Janša skirt controversy during Parliament appearance

STRASBOURG, France — For several hours on Tuesday, most people involved carefully avoided the elephant in the room.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša didn’t lash out at European institutions. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen didn’t explicitly call out Janša over ongoing rule-of-law concerns. Several leading MEPs didn’t directly confront Janša.

The apparent détente came during an appearance before the European Parliament to discuss Slovenian’s Council of the EU presidency, which began last Thursday with a controversial bang — Janša lashed out at EU bodies for holding “double standards” and one of his ministers grumbled about EU “swine.” The remarks left EU officials and MEPs fretting over Slovenia’s power to steer the EU during its six-month term.

But that frustration was not always visible Tuesday. Janša wasn’t pressed too hard on his auspicious start. And he only received some comments about long-running concerns that he has led an effort to curb media freedom, demean the judiciary and stall the selection of officials for a new EU prosecutor’s office.

“One says we have a problem in Slovenia and in other countries, others say we have a very critical press in Slovenia,” said Manfred Weber, Parliament group leader of the center-right European People’s Party, which includes Janša’s party. “One says we have a formally independent judiciary, others say this is highly politicized.”

Janša, for his part, tried to skirt the incendiary issues. During a 40-minute speech on the Slovenian presidency’s policy priorities, Janša spoke of paying “special attention” to media freedom during the presidency, but he carefully avoided blaming the European institutions.  

In her own remarks, von der Leyen similarly turned attention to consensus-oriented issues, calling on the EU to “increase our efforts to convince people to get the [COVID-19] jab.” She did at one point generally urge the Slovenian government to “continue the important work on the rule-of-law file.”

Still, some center-left MEPs did take advantage of their chance to address Janša, upbraiding him on media freedom and the delays in appointing Slovenian officials to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).

“Unfortunately, you seem to want to be part of a fairly sinister club that doesn’t appreciate free media, that can’t stomach the independence of judiciary or respecting LGBTIQ rights at all,” said Malik Azmani, a Dutch MEP whose liberal VVD party has been the target of Janša’s criticism in the past.

“You talk the talk but you don’t walk the walk, Mr. Janša,” he said, adding that his “track record at home” means that “we cannot take your words for granted.”

The Socialist and Green MEPs echoed those concerns.

“I agree with the priorities you announced … recovery and resilience, strengthening European law and European values,” Iratxe García, leader of the Socialist bloc in Parliament, told Janša. “Do you genuinely commit to those?”

Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens, expressed concern that Slovenia was heading toward “illiberal democracy,” similar to Hungary, which has openly championed the concept.

Janša has already made many headlines since starting a third stint as prime minister last year.

Last week, during a meeting with von der Leyen and her commissioners, Janša showed a photograph of judges on a hiking excursion with his political opponents, attempting to show that his country’s judiciary is politicized. The episode sparked outrage among EU officials, including Commission Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, who later refused to appear in a photo with Slovenian ministers. 

In a press conference following the meeting, Janša also showed reporters a 15-minute video that claimed it was actually his left-leaning political opponents in Slovenia — not him — who were threatening journalists and media freedom.

But on Tuesday, Janša appeared less eager to provoke any controversy.

In a press conference following his address to MEPs, he brushed off concerns about the EPPO selection procedure, arguing that the office — meant to reduce EU budget fraud — was a “necessary mechanism.” He vowed to “have the candidates by autumn.”

Janša then concluded: “We will do everything in our power to build bridges.”