Slovenia: Standing Up to Trump, Putin and Netanyahu         

When it comes to political leaders in Europe who stand for dishonorable causes, much focus has been justifiedly placed on Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban.  Hopes are understandably high that he will not win re-election for a sixth term next month.

Orban, the Trump and Putin puppet

Orban is a Trump and Putin puppet who has used his veto right to delay or block consensus partnership decisions taken by all fellow EU member nations.  This includes his opposition to lending support and a European future to Ukraine. 

In contravention to Hungary’s pre-1989 stance, Orban has eagerly supported Moscow’s desire to effect a later-day Anschluss between Ukraine and Russia.

Why care about Slovenia?

Worrying about an upcoming election in Hungary is one thing, but why should the world-at-large care about who runs Slovenia, one of the EU’s tiniest nations? 

The two-million strong nation is squeezed between Italy, Austria and Hungary, as well as its former Yugoslav comrades in Croatia.

As it happens, Slovenia is in the final throes of a bitter campaign to win back power in an election to be held on Sunday. 

Standing up to Slovenian Putinists and Trumpists

The election pits the country’s current Prime Minister, Robert Golob, against Janez Janša, the former Prime Minister of Slovenia and a pro-Putin, pro-Trump nationalist populist.  In 2022, Golob beat Janša.

Janša, who has also been backed by MAGA forces, is also supported by Russian puppets in the region who are spending a fortune in Slovenia urging the Serb minority there to defeat Golob on Sunday.  These puppets include Milorad Dodik, the former leader of Bosnia’s breakaway Republika Srpska.

Not to be left out, hard right Israeli political forces have sent top operatives to Ljubljana from the notorious Black Cube firm which was founded by ex-Israeli intelligence and IDF officers. 

Their dishonorable mission is to “advise” political parties in foreign countries on how to “win” elections for pro-Netanyahu fellow-travellers like Janša.

Standing up for good causes

Golob is high on the target list of all of these autocratic forces because the former energy entrepreneur and businessman has seen to it that, during his tenure in office, Slovenia stands up for good causes – and against bad ones.

Broadly speaking, he has been busy taking on the United States and Russia.

For example, even though Slovenia is not a member of NATO but, to his credit, Golob it has seen to it that his country sent 163 million euros in military aid to Ukraine, including  armoured vehicles, as well as financial, technical and humanitarian support.

Slovenia also sent 28 battle tanks to take on the Russians, which distinguishes it favorably from the 14 Challenger tanks which the UK sent.

No supplicant to Trump

In addition to Putin, tiny Slovenia has earned the enmity of Donald Trump. Golob refused Trump’s invitation to join the so-called Board of Peace, the Trump controlled outfit the U.S. leader would like to see grow and supplant the United Nations.

When Trump announced he would annex Greenland, Golob dispatched two Slovenian soldiers to the island in a show of symbolic European solidarity with Denmark.

Mocking his successor’s courage

Golob’s decision in that matter once again met with mockery by his election opponent Janša. Like British Tories and Nigel Farage, Janša thinks that worshipping Donald Trump should be the preferred posture for European democracies, big or small. 

If Golob loses his bid for a second term and Janez Janša, the former Prime Minister, takes over power in Slovenia again, the country may immediately move to join Trump’s Board of Peace, greasing the wheels of Trump’s stalling Iran War machine.

Janša: Just another Orban

The main issues at play in Sunday’s election in Slovenia are the usual ones of jobs, housing, education and rising energy prices.

The latter point should matter to potential voters for Janez Janša, since this development is thanks to Netanyahu’s and Trump’s war against Iran. 

For younger and more liberal urban voters, an factor in deciding how to vote are the regular attacks on media freedom by Orban and Trump is something they remember from the Janša years in government.

The outcome of the vote in Slovenia will also determine th echoice between two radically different foreign polices – the pro-Ukrainian course of Golob and the pro-Trump path of Janša.

Sunday’s election result will be closely watched in Moscow, Tel Aviv and in Washington, not only in Brussels.