According to Prime Minister Janez Janša, the pandemic, cyberattacks, the demographics of the EU, and cultural Marxism, are the key challenges the European Union and Europe are facing. He believes that the EU must return to the values on which it was founded, and we must fight for our identity, heritage, our nations, freedom, and way of life.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Janša, took part in an online conference, titled “Europe Uncensored.” In addition to the Slovenian Prime Minister, the online conference was also attended by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and François-Xavier Bellamy, Member of the European Parliament and philosopher. At the conference, the European leaders spoke about how to shape the future of Europe, given all the key challenges we are facing.
Initially, Prime Minister Janša emphasized that such discussions are good and important, and he welcomed the purpose for which the conference was organized. When speaking about the key challenges the European Union is facing, he first mentioned Brexit. He believes that Brexit is a “strategic disaster.” He explained this claim by saying that a condition for the existence of the European Union was the balance of power; however, Brexit established a significant change in that balance. “A good future of the European Union depends on the answer to the question of when a new balance of power will be established, and what it will be like,” the Prime Minister stressed.
Unfinished projects and the migrant crisis
He went on to say that the time when Slovenia joined the European Union could be described as the golden age of the EU. “After fifteen, sixteen years we see the reality, we see a lot of good things, a lot of progress and challenges that are significantly changing the European Union we joined sixteen years ago,” said the Prime Minister, adding that during this time, there has been a failed attempt to adopt a European Constitution, which the European leaders have sought to remedy with the Treaty of Lisbon, where problems re-emerged. “But these were all administrative challenges,” Janša said, adding that the financial and economic crisis followed, showing that there were still a few unfinished projects within the EU, one of them being the European Monetary Union. The consequences of it being an unfinished project are still being felt today.
“What followed was the migrant crisis. During the time when only Spain was facing the migrant crisis, it seemed like a distant problem, but in 2015 we were faced with the reality that this is something big. In my opinion, the wrong approach of the European institutions and the Member States, contributed to the final decision of the British, who voted for Brexit,” said Prime Minister Janša, who went on to say that “of course, other things were also important, but I think this situation added a few additional percent of votes to those who voted to exit the European Union.”
Mass unresponsiveness of global institutions with the emergence of the pandemic
“It does not matter whether we are talking about an unfinished first wave or the beginning of the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic; in the coming weeks, we will have to face some measures, similar to those, implemented by the Member States in early March or April,” Prime Minister Janez Janša said, highlighting that, when the epidemic began, “we were faced with the mass unresponsiveness of the global institutions we created to prevent and alert us to such crises.” Among these institutions, the Prime Minister mentioned the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the European Union. “We were completely unprepared for what followed, with the state of emergency, the seizure of protective equipment, the curfew, Europe at the time seemed like it was from the Middle Ages,” said the Prime Minister, adding that we will now have to face the moment of truth. “We are not yet in the post-COVID-19 crisis era, but we are somewhere in between, at a time when we are trying to remedy the economic consequences of the epidemic,” the Prime Minister said, and added that the recovery fund proposed by the European Commission would be a good response to the issues that need to be addressed in relation to the economic situation.
“It is more important to beat the virus. Until an effective drug or vaccine against COVID-19 is found, partial normalisation can only be achieved with an accessible application for tracking the infection,” said the Prime Minister Janez Janša, when talking about the coronavirus crisis. He also believes that this is the only alternative that would allow for tourism activities to continue “without locking down countries. We need Europe in this matter so that we would have one application for the whole of Europe, because we need to be able to detect the infection,” said the Slovenian Prime Minister. “We still don’t know what the consequences of the epidemic will be, but we know roughly how to deal with it in order to be effective,” he added.
We need realistic and pragmatic solutions
“Now is not the time to speak at length about the future of Europe, to propose changes to the treaties or to have big dreams about new European institutions, as this can create divisions, but what we need is stability,” said the Prime Minister Janez Janša, adding that we need realistic and pragmatic solutions. “We have to enlarge the Schengen Area to include Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria, which is not so difficult, but we need political decisions,” he then said, highlighting the enlargement of the European Union, to include the Western Balkan countries. “This is the strategic answer to the challenge posed by Brexit, and this is the fulfilment of the dreams we had at the very beginning when we spoke about Europe being whole and free,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
In the words of the Prime Minister, ideologically, the main threat to the European Union and Europe, as such, is cultural Marxism. “We are all following what is going on, and I have to say that it is the same formula that was written in the Communist Manifesto some 200 years ago. To create a new world, according to the Manifesto, you need to dismantle the nation, family, private property, private schools, and religion. This is what’s going on now, through the mass media, universities, the cultural industry, multinational institutions, and some political parties. Something that has partially been mentioned before is that the fewer votes someone gets in an election, the more he or she preaches about democracy, about values, about how to create a new world. There is something going on that is cleverly hidden, but anyone who knows history and political concepts, can clearly see where we are heading,” the Prime Minister emphasized, warning that this is the battle for our way of life, for Western civilization. “Much more is at stake in this battle than just the European Union or the European institutions,” the Prime Minister pointed out.
The European plan to battle the epidemic, cyberattacks, and demographics
“In addition to the novel coronavirus epidemic, we may have to face unknown threats at any given point in time. For example, cyberattacks. When speaking about the future of the European Union, we must also be better prepared for such threats. Slovenia is now starting the trio presidency of the Council of the European Union, together with Germany and Portugal, and we have already proposed the priorities to our trio partners, which they agreed with. We believe that first, a European plan should be made regarding how to fight against the current epidemic and massive cyberattacks, which could soon become the new reality,” Prime Minister Janša explained.
In his opinion, currently, the most important strategic challenge for the EU is its demographics. “We can do everything and even more, but if there are no people to share the common values, everything is lost,” Janez Janša emphasized, adding that family is the basic cell of society and that it must be protected and supported, which is why family-friendly policies are of strategic importance for ageing societies. “Migration policy, considered by some to be the total solution to the demographic challenges, can only complement the demographic challenges if it is properly managed, and when the social, cultural, and economic costs of migration are taken into account. Where this is not the case, we can see the consequences – which in some countries are even irreparable,” Janez Janša pointed out.
In conclusion, the Prime Minister said that the European Union had been created as a union of values. “Since the foundation of the European Union, more people have enjoyed peace and a high standard of living, and the vast majority of Europeans have been born into wealth,” Janša said, adding that the European Union is capable of meeting all the different challenges, “provided, of course, that we all return to our values. That much is clear. We should rethink our identity and fight for it. We must fight for the people, for the Europeans, for our heritage, for our nations, for our freedom, for our way of life, as this is our future,” said the Prime Minister Janez Janša, concluding that it is our responsibility and duty to fulfil the dream of the founding fathers of the European Union.
Sara Kovač