An EU senior has refused to be photographed with Slovenia’s right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa. This was written by the Guardian on the occasion of yesterday’s ceremony for the official start of the six-month rotating EU presidency.
The British edition notes that the opening of the presidency has become a farce after European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans refused to take pictures with Janez Jansa after a heated argument behind the scenes during the official lunch.
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At the opening of the meeting in Ljubljana with the 27 members of the commission, Jansa showed them a group photo of a Slovenian judge with a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and other representatives of the Slovenian Social Democratic Party. Jansa, attacked for his attacks on the independence of the Slovenian justice system, wanted to show with the photo that judges in his country are politically biased.
Timmermans, who besides being vice-president of the European Commission is also a representative of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, sharply objected to this and refused to join the traditional general picture for such events.
EC President Ursula von der Leyen then told reporters that judges have the right to privacy, which should not be used to impart bias. She said this in the presence of Yansha, a controversial figure unique among European leaders by supporting Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the US election, the Guardian notes.
The scandal spoiled the atmosphere of the press conference for the beginning of the Slovenian presidency.
Start with a scandal – this is the title of the information of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. The publication notes that Jansha complained that the justice system was infiltrated by “communist judges”.
Janez Jansa, meanwhile, has called on the European Union to reach an agreement on the enlargement of the 27-nation bloc, Reuters reported.
If the EU does not expand, then others will, Janša said after a meeting in Bardo with Ursula von der Leyen on the occasion of the start of Slovenia’s six-month rotating presidency.
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