During the recent visit of the Minister of Defence, Marjan Šarec, to Kyiv, the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, Oleksii Reznikov, did not attend the official photo op with him. The reason for this is said to be the recent vote by the Slovenian left-wing MEPs in the European Parliament, as they did not support the resolution against Russia.
Monday’s announcement by the Ministry of Defence that Minister Marjan Šarec and his team had arrived in Kyiv came as quite a surprise to many, as Šarec was one of the prominent critics of Janez Janša’s visit to Kyiv – the first official visit of foreign politicians during the war, which happened when Ukraine was besieged, and many foreign politicians were practically prepared to hand it over to the Russian occupier. Apparently, the pain on the left part of the political spectrum over the fact that it was not them who were there was really bad. After the government in Slovenia had changed and the Ukrainian forces managed to push the Russians far away in a counter-offensive, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tanja Fajon was the first from the current government’s team to go to Kyiv, followed by Šarec. They were obviously counting on public amnesia, but nowadays, thankfully, the mainstream media in Slovenia cannot hide everything.
But for some reason, these same media did not report that Minister Šarec had, in fact, been given the cold shoulder in Ukraine. They reported that he was welcomed by the Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Oleksandr Polishchuk, who showed him the destroyed Russian tanks in St Michael’s Square, and then they laid flowers at the nearby Wall of Remembrance. But the media did not mention the fact that Ukrainian Minister of Defence, Oleksii Reznikov, refused to publicly meet with Šarec. They did, however, have an afternoon meeting – but without cameras or a photo op.
The international public is becoming increasingly aware of the duplicity of the Slovenian left
According to unofficial information, the reason for the cancellation of the photo op is the failure of Slovenian left-wing Members of the European Parliament to support the resolution declaring Russia a terrorist state. Namely, two MEPs from the ranks of the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD), Milan Brglez and Matjaž Nemec, abstained from the vote, while Klemen Grošelj (the Freedom Movement party – Gibanje Svoboda) and Irena Joveva (the Freedom Movement party) deliberately did not take part in the vote. The latter two were elected to the European Parliament on the List of Marjan Šarec, which joined the Freedom Movement at a merger congress, after not making it to the National Assembly in the April elections.
Apparently, the left-wing MEPs’ actions did not go unnoticed by the international public or the Ukrainians.
Slovenian left-wing politics declares itself to be a great supporter of Ukraine, but we have repeatedly shown that this is false and misleading. The left is intimately on Russia’s side, and this is extremely damaging to our country’s reputation. And Šarec has experienced first-hand the consequences of the dirty double game being played by his MEPs.
Sara Kovač
