The liberal Renew Europe party in the European Parliament, of which a member is Šarec’s LMŠ, clearly wants the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission to watch over the upcoming parliamentary elections. They suggested that a special letter be sent to the mission. The Group of the Left in the European Parliament and the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D) clearly agree with this. The European People’s Party (EPP), the largest parliamentary party, vehemently rejected the proposal. Opposition to the initiative and concerns could be seen among other European parties.
The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organisation dealing with security issues. It addresses them holistically and solves them based on cooperation in three dimensions: political-military, economic-environmental, and human. Arms control, preventive diplomacy, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, democratisation, election control, and economic and environmental security are the most important security issues the organisation addresses. The OSCE usually observes elections in transition countries, as they are still adhering to democratic standards of conduct.
However, it should be emphasised that this does not mean that the OSCE does not observe elections in developed countries as well. For example, they controlled the course of elections in neighbouring Italy, as well as in Great Britain, Spain, France and even the United States, which is otherwise considered a kind of cradle of democracy. In the past, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) has also appointed an Election Assessment Mission (IOM), which has already monitored preliminary elections in Slovenia.
The OSCE mission would be a new political topic in the media to discredit the government
It is not entirely clear why Renew Europe wants control of the upcoming elections. However, it is undoubtedly interesting to note that in addition to Klemen Grošelj and Irena Joveva, Sophie in ‘t Veld is also a member of the mentioned European political group. She is especially known to Slovenia as a member of the Delegation of the European Parliament Committee, which paid a three-day visit to Slovenia to investigate the state of democracy there after the Slovene left sold a story on the Brussels floor after the failed takeover of power, how human rights, especially freedom of speech and journalistic reporting, were allegedly trampled on in our country. The mission thus aimed to find out what the situation is in the field of the rule of law, what the situation is in the field of the media and what the situation is in the field of preventing corruption.
Let’s remember. The mission aimed to determine the situation in the field of the rule of law, the situation in the media and the situation in the prevention of corruption. “None of these goals have been achieved by this commission. It did not find out the state of the rule of law, as it dealt exclusively with the issue of delegated prosecutors,” explained Romana Tomc, MEP, adding that the commission did not deal with non-transparent ownership, concentration and “tycoonisation” of the media. “It dealt exclusively with STA funding, and we did not mention corruption at all.” Of course, this was not strange, as it was clear from the very beginning that this was a mission with a political connotation, which was directed against the current government of Janez Janša. All this was further confirmed when it turned out that the assistant to the president of SD Tanja Fajon Jure Tanko left traces on the report document.
The political group, of which Fajon and Brglez are a part, is also in favour of the initiative
It is certainly not surprising that they also agreed with the recent Renew Europe initiative in the Group of the Left in the European Parliament and in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D). The fact that MEPs Tanja Fajon and Milan Brglez are also members of the latter group is telling. European People’s Party (EPP), the largest parliamentary party whose members are MEPs Romana Tomc, Milan Zver, Franc Bogovič, and Ljudmila Novak vehemently rejected the proposal. Concerns were expressed by the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, and the initiative was opposed by the Group on Identity and Democracy (ID) and the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). However, it turned out that there was no readiness for such a mission at this stage.
Sara Kovač