“Now, it seems that the wave that has risen will also arrive in Europe, but not with violence,” believes Tone Kajzer, former Slovenian ambassador to the USA, regarding the election of the President of the USA, Donald Trump.
At 6 p.m. CET on Monday, Donald Trump was sworn in for the second time as the President of the United States of America in Washington. Members of Congress, Supreme Court Justices, the diplomatic corps and other distinguished guests gathered in the Senate President’s Chamber before their arrival at the Capitol. This was accompanied by various speeches, musical items and prayers by various artists, priests and leaders. The first to be sworn in was Vice-President J.D. Vance. President Trump was sworn in after him, placing his hands on the Bible in front of the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, thus legally and symbolically transferring power to the new President. This was then followed by an inaugural speech in which Trump outlined his visions and goals for his presidency and sent a message to the citizens. Celebrations followed afterwards.
The swearing-in of the President is a major event in the USA, which happens only every four years, and there is great interest in attending. The media already revealed last week how many members of the audience would be from Slovenia. However, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob and his partner, who had hoped to generate sympathy and get a possible invitation to the inauguration by ambushing Trump in Paris, were not there. More than that, Golob’s support for Kamala Harris resonated among the organisers, sealing Golob’s path to Washington. The President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, who was a lawyer of Melania Trump, also did not attend the inauguration.
According to media reports, the new First Lady of the USA, Melania Trump, together with her father, Viktor Knavs, invited seven personal friends to the inauguration of her husband, Donald Trump, on Monday, including entrepreneur and aviation inventor Ivo Boscarol and Bishop Anton Jamnik of Ljubljana.
According to the Demokracija magazine (Democracy), the President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Janez Janša, will not attend the event due to the health problems of his wife, Urška Bačovnik Janša, who has a serious eye infection. According to unnamed sources, the founder of the International Centre for the Treatment of Cardiovascular Diseases MC Medicor, Metka Zorc, her sister Ruda Zorc Pleskovič, Alojz Pleskovič and Rok Pleskovič have also been invited to attend Trump’s inauguration.
Additionally, Ivan Kralj, former owner of the Arex arms company, and his son Gregor Kralj were also invited to attend. Other Slovenians to attend the inauguration were the Slovenian Ambassador to the USA Iztok Mirošič, MEP Branko Grims, and National Assembly members Žan Mahnič and Andrej Poglajen of the SDS party, who received an invitation from the Slovenian-born US Congressman Paul Gosar and the youth wing of Republicans in New York.
Commentary by former Slovenian Ambassador to the USA Tone Kajzer:
“The inauguration comes from the roots of the American Constitution. Presidential elections are the elections where ideas and different opinions are confronted, and the President is elected on that basis. The American system is a majority system, and we know that even now that President Trump has won (including the electoral vote), this still does not mean 70-percent support from the entire American population (but only around 53-54 percent).
There are still 47-48 percent of those who disagree with him. That is why this inauguration is so important in symbolic terms. It is an act where, after the elections, the American population comes together again and, under a new administration, embarks on a common path, that is to say, where the nation as such unites around basic values. After all, the United States of America are the cradle of democracy. I think it is very important that this is known in Slovenia, that the event is not just seen as a ceremony or an opportunity to discuss who will be invited to the event.
Elections are not a war, democracy is about confrontation of different views and ideas, and it is extremely important that we are united around a basic centre of values. I think that all Slovenians have it written in our DNA that in 1990, we decided for democracy, freedom, a market economy, economic freedom, and that we do not deviate from that. But we may have different opinions and different ideas on how we are going to create greater prosperity. But, as you can see, the opposite is happening here at the moment.
Slovenian foreign policy is just a reflection of the whole situation in the country – it is all very activist! In the last few years, Slovenia has fallen in virtually every international comparative index (economic freedom, media freedom, etc.). Now, it seems that the wave that has risen will also arrive in Europe, but not with violence. Europe’s problem is not Elon Musk or the social network X, but our political landscape and our political elite – people are frustrated because there are no results.
We are talking about issues that are irrelevant to us (the green transition). I am not saying that we should not work more on energy efficiency, but this kind of imposition will lead us into poverty. In the case of the invitation to the inauguration, it is important not to be cheerleaders about who has been invited.
Removing censorship on social networks will have an impact on the Slovenian space. The question is when. Will we Slovenians, as we did in the 1990s, be late (when others had already moved on, we were still deciding on an independent state because we had such a strong type of the then-existing, undemocratic structures) … Now, the task is to invite as many people as possible to the platform X, not to brainwash them with social media, but to give them different information so that they can form their own opinions more easily, so that they don’t have to go to the national media outlet, RTV Slovenia’s web portal for news or listen to the evening news, where they are merely told what the reality of the world is …
And if we can do that, I believe that the situation in Slovenia will also start to get better. Because in a democracy, in a market economy, in a state governed by the rule of law, talents can also reveal themselves. But now we have negative selection, and it is the other way around. The media law is a hysterical response to what is happening with the social network X and Facebook, and I cannot interpret it in any other way. However – the truth cannot be stopped. But support for the law is already shrinking within the coalition. I think that the matter needs to be stopped, and a very serious rethinking needs to be done, because what Slovenia needs is not closures, censorship and monopolies, but opening up and greater credibility, including at the international level. Our foreign policy at the moment shows that we have reached a dead end.
As for the guests who were invited to the inauguration: there is a protocol, ambassadors are invited, and I myself was also invited to Joe Biden’s inauguration. But then the President also has the choice of inviting his own chosen guests. In the case of Slovenia, the fact that Melania Trump is the First Lady has helped a great deal … I think that is how it should be, but I do not want this to turn into a competition in Slovenia. We need to take into account the extremely complex geopolitical situation (Greenland, the Panama Canal, etc.). This year, geopolitics will be happening before our eyes. And Slovenians will not be able to sit on two or three chairs at the same time – we are part of the Western, civilised, democratic world.”
Domen Mezeg
