Slovenia at its greenest

We were all absorbed by the duel of apocalyptic newsworthiness between Macron and the extreme right. Yet, this spring brought us a resounding election victory of a green party in the small ex-Yugoslav country of Slovenia.
 
 Robert Golob and his Freedom Party founded earlier this year defeated the populist politician, prime minister Janez Jansa. Golob’s environmentalist centre-left party won about a third of the votes in the parliamentary elections, with Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic party (SDS) taking less than a quarter, a much wider margin that all opinion polls had predicted.

Slovenian electorate avoided the “Hungarianisation” of Slovenia, a reference to Jansa’s tendency to harshly repel critics and lash against independent media. He had a close relationship with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s authoritarian and illiberal leader. 

All the election dynamics were overanalyzed in the European media. However, of greater importance is the environmental and climate agenda of the freshly elected Slovenian prime minister. And, in truth, Golob is the only straightforwardly green prime minister currently on the European continent, if not on the whole globe.

Borut Tavcar, my old friend from the main Slovenian daily, Delo, will enlighten us in matters related to Golob’s policy, political philosophy and agenda. Borut is the editor of the environment and sustainability section of the newspaper. Since the COP in Cancun in 2010 we met annually in various green events all across Europe.

Raul Cazan