“This is a very bad signal, especially for Slovenian citizens. What is happening is exactly what we in the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) have been predicting – that Slovenia will eventually become a migrant pocket,” former Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs commented on the Italian request to terminate the Schengen Agreement with Slovenia. Meanwhile, SDS MP Branko Grims said the following: “All this is a direct and not only political but also criminal responsibility of the government of Robert Golob, for which he should be held accountable – and sooner or later, I believe he will be!”
Italy has asked for the Schengen Agreement with Slovenia to be suspended because of the risk of terrorist infiltration among the illegal immigrants coming through our country from the Middle East, as announced a few days ago by the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, who is also the National Secretary of the Forza Italia (Forward Italy) party, and who singled out the Friuli-Venezia Giulia, which is the most affected region. The government of the neighbouring country is demanding new and much stronger measures. Starting this winter, we have already seen the reintroduction of border controls with Italy, which was necessary because of the increase in the number of illegal immigrants.
Former Interior Minister Aleš Hojs commented on the matter for our media outlet: “This is a very bad signal, especially for Slovenian citizens. What is happening is exactly what we in the Slovenian Democratic Party have been predicting – that Slovenia will eventually become a migrant pocket.” In his opinion, this was largely due to the work of the current Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar and Prime Minister Robert Golob. It was they who, even before the elections, were “vehemently explaining” how they were going to remove the fence on the southern border, which is already being done, and which was merely an invitation to migrants and smugglers to increase the flow of human trafficking across Slovenia’s southern border.
“The icing on the cake was added by the Prime Minister, who said in a recent interview that this is not a problem anyway, because these people are just crossing into Slovenia, we just feed them a little, clothe them, maybe register them and send them on their way… All these statements and the actions that follow (by our neighbours) are very disconcerting.” Now, things are moving further, as the Italians have already asked for the suspension of the Schengen border with Slovenia. The Italians can also decide on matters unilaterally, like the Austrians have done, who have set up border controls. And if the Italians are not successful at the formal level in terms of the suspension (meaning, if they do not get the consent of the European Commission), then they can still settle the matters in a “de facto” way.
The government is incapable of preventing migration
No one can stop the Italians from reintroducing police at their border crossings, or even sending the army to certain points. Hojs: “What we in the SDS party predicted two years ago, and what these authorities have not listened to, and apparently neither did the 400,000 “dancers” who gave this incompetent, corrupt government a voice, is coming true. Unfortunately, we will all pay the price for it.” With the enormous intensity of migration, security risks are also increasing, and crime is on the rise. All of this shows that the fight or management of migration in Slovenia is out of control, and that the government is incapable of preventing migration.
The matter will be dealt with by European institutions for some time, but the Italians are already exercising border control, so to speak. It is only a matter of time before full border controls are reintroduced (at the moment, they are still only random), and Slovenia will return to the days before the Schengen regime was introduced. Nevertheless, the “sobering up” of the Slovenian electorate is highly questionable. Despite the promise of higher taxes, lower wages, and a worse life, they elected such a government. “Most Slovenians chose to “dance” instead. It is hard to predict whether or not two years of a corrupt and incompetent government has sobered them up,” noted the former Minister sceptically.
The tax policy has led to an exodus of entrepreneurs and young families
SDS MP Branko Grims also commented on the matter for our media outlet, saying: “The anti-Slovenian policy of the Robert Golob government, which has burdened the Slovenian nation with impossible taxes and forced the most successful part of the Slovenian nation – entrepreneurs and young families – to move, while on the other hand opening the borders, is now showing itself in all its destructive glory.” The fact is that Italy will tighten its border controls, followed by Austria and the other countries. “And the result will be that what I have been warning about for so long will happen – we will become a red pocket at the top of the Balkan route, burdened with the impossible costs of maintaining this policy, which is illegal, and I want to specifically stress that.”
“I would like to point out that Golob’s policy is clearly unconstitutional and illegal!”
“On the other hand, we will be confronted with security and all the other problems that the flood of illegal migrants brings,” Grims said, while at the same time believing that Golob and the entire government should (at least) resign immediately for this reason, and that such behaviour should also be resisted “by all means”. The SDS party parliamentary group will, therefore, also propose that an extraordinary sitting of the relevant working body of the National Assembly be convened and, if necessary, a sitting of the National Assembly as a whole. They will propose the measures that are necessary to restore the legal situation. “I would like to point out that Robert Golob’s policy is clearly unconstitutional and illegal!” This anti-Slovenian policy, Grims argued, is based on the fact that the Golob government has first of all removed the army from the border, which is, in fact, the only force that illegal migrants coming from the area of radical Islam are afraid of in the first place.
Secondly, according to Grims, the government has removed the police as such from the borders, too. In doing so, it has made it impossible, in accordance with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, to refuse illegal migrants at the border who are entering the country in groups and, as a result, have lost any right to individual treatment. And since the government has done this knowingly, it means that this is a deliberate failure to act in a duty-bound manner in the implementation of the Borders Act, and at the same time, a direct violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, which is obvious, since the Constitution imposes respect for territorial integrity (protection from the border line itself to the entire territory of the Republic of Slovenia). Since this is not the case, we are witnessing “developmentally catastrophic” consequences.
He will be held criminally liable for his actions
The very proposal to leave the Schengen area is certain to resonate “in a very negative way among all those who would like to cooperate with Slovenia, Slovenian entrepreneurs, and the economy as a whole, in business and otherwise.” However, if this were to be fully implemented, which is a real possibility, it would mean that Slovenia would effectively be excluded from the European Union area to which it belongs, which would deepen the economic crisis, cause economic decline, and worsen the security situation. All of this, he believes, is the “direct and not only political but also criminal responsibility” of the government of Robert Golob, for which he should – and sooner or later will – be held accountable!
Domen Mezeg
