The fact that Slovenia is sending a confidante of the former Directorate for State Security of Yugoslavia – UDBA – to Brussels as a candidate for the position of European Commissioner is sparking international controversy on several levels, and this has recently also been reported on in various media outlets, from Croatia’s Slobodna Dalmacija to Austria’s Kleine Zeitung, which points out that Marta Kos’s candidacy comes at a time when Slovenia needs a credible representative at the European level, and that the actions in Kos’s political past are too serious to ignore.
The heated criticism of Marta Kos, Slovenia’s candidate for European Commissioner, is sparking controversy in Brussels and filling international headlines. Her political career as a “confidante” of the secret political police, allegations about her leadership style and the suggestion that she was only nominated because of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen‘s desire for more women are also causing debate in the European People’s Party (EPP).
The political career of Marta Kos and the fact that she was still nominated as a candidate for the position of European Commissioner – despite everything that is known – is also causing quite a stir in the rest of Europe. Judging by the reporting of the aforementioned portals, the news of this has been raising many questions and criticisms, especially now that Marta Kos has been confirmed as a candidate by the Commission for EU Affairs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia.
A storm in Brussels
“Now the waves are crashing in Brussels. Not only in Slovenia, but also all over our country, there are many critical voices against a candidate who comes from a prominent family in Prevalje, just a stone’s throw from Pliberk or the border with Carinthia,” reads the Austrian media, and the author of the text cannot help but wonder about the fact that the candidate for one of the highest EU jobs still lives in Switzerland, i.e. outside the European Union.
Tensions in the EPP
Kleine Zeitung then goes on to mention Kos’s withdrawal from the 2022 presidential race, which comes as a surprise, but of course, they cannot ignore the fact that the 59-year-old candidate allegedly worked for the secret service of the former Yugoslavia, the UDBA, which has led Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) MEP Romana Tomc to strongly criticise Kos, describing her as “totally unacceptable” for the position in question. This is explosive, as MEP Tomc is not only the head of the delegation in the EU Parliament, but also Vice-President of the European People’s Party. Kos’s past and her links with the UDBA are the main targets of criticism, which is particularly worrying as a rejection of her candidacy would go against the wishes of Ursula von der Leyen, a member of the same party family as Tomc.
Marta Kos is the “most controversial” of all the candidates
The reporting from Croatia is no different. Political analyst Davor Gjenero, who is considered by Slobodna Dalmacija to be one of the greatest experts on the Slovenian political scene in Croatia, is reported by the media outlet as saying that Kos’s chances are lower than those of the other candidates. “She is the most controversial of all the candidates, I’m sorry to say,” Gjenero said. Gjenero also did not dismiss the possibility of her cooperation with the UDBA, saying that this is a matter that, in his words, “has been dragging on since the end of the 1990s, when Ljubo Sirc published an inventory of UDBA collaborators on the basis of microfilms found by the first ‘non-communist intelligence chief,’ Miha Brejc.”
A. H.
