Slovenia has become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. It succeeded despite a highly unusual campaign that raised many eyebrows at home and abroad. What was particularly unusual were the attempts to adopt a monkey by the Speaker of the National Assembly and the embarrassing campaign led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tanja Fajon in African countries.
The project was launched by the previous, reformist government of Janez Janša. The then-Foreign Minister Anže Logar has already reacted to the result of the vote. After congratulating the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, he wrote: “I am glad that the government continued with the project of the previous government and understood why the decision to run at the end of 2021 was the right one.”
The vote in New York was set to start at 4 p.m. CET. The vote was secret, but there was no limit on the number of rounds of voting. To be elected to the Security Council, we needed two-thirds of the votes of the countries present and voting. We needed 128 votes to succeed, and we got 153. In total, 191 votes were cast.
President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and former Prime Minister Janez Janša also commented on the vote and assessed the number of votes as a realistic range of the Western alliance. He wrote the following message on Twitter: “Congratulations to the diplomatic corps of Slovenia, the USA, the UK and the EU. 153 votes in the UN is a realistic reach of the alliance to which we belong. Now the trust will have to be realised through active work and initiatives in the Security Council, where we have not seen challenges as great as today for a long time. If Albania could do it before us, so can we.”
Before leaving for the USA, Minister Tanja Fajon pointed out that Slovenia is on track to become a member of the Security Council. At the same time, there were signals in the media that everything was not so rosy.
Enough votes despite an unprofessional campaign
In light of this, former Ambassador to the USA Tone Kajzer expressed his belief that Slovenia would have had a better chance if it had acted in a more coordinated way. “In this context, it would, of course, have been good if we had had a clearer strategy of what we wanted to achieve in Africa, with clearly measurable inputs and objectives. As far as I know, we did not have a strategy in this area, which should be short and operational,” said Kajzer, who expressed the opinion that we could achieve much more if we appointed a special envoy to target all efforts to mobilise support, especially among African countries. Even then, however, Kaiser pointed out that the written support guaranteed in advance was not a given, as the ballot was secret. “The key point is that these special missions were apparently done in a protocol-unprofessional way, we know nothing about the content, the result is doubtful, and if there is a result, I am afraid that the authorities will not be able to cash in on that result,” international lawyer Miha Pogačnik summed up the point about the African missions.
With the help of “independent” journalists, they tried to protect themselves
As Fajon was initially optimistic about Slovenia’s candidacy but then became more cautiously optimistic as voting day approached, many thought that the ruling party had already started preparing for failure. The statement by former Prime Minister Janez Janša, who explained that “Slovenia submitted its candidacy for membership of the UN Security Council at the explicit request of its American and European allies in the EU and NATO, who are providing all-round assistance to Slovenian diplomacy in securing support in the UN General Assembly,” was thus exploited by the current authorities. Pointing out that Slovenia would only lose its seat if its allies gave up on us, Fajon accused the opposition of harming the country, saying it was ready to do anything to bring down the current government. The mainstream media added its own spin to this, with articles that carried headlines such as: “Is Janša ruining his own candidacy for the UN Security Council?” – trying to blame Janša for the possible failure, lest anyone think that the blame lies with the ruling foreign policy.
Petrič: Those who know Europe know where Slovenia is
“Those who know us, those who know Europe, know who Slovenia is and where it stands,” explained the long-time diplomat Dr Ernest Petrič to the media outlet N1 when asked about the impact of Janša’s statements on Slovenia’s candidacy. “We cannot run and then say that we are not a member of the EU and NATO. Then we will give the impression of being totally uncredible. Then I wonder if anyone else will vote for us, because they will understand that we want to say something in advance that is not true,” Petrič said before the vote.
Sara Kovač
