“The rise of illiberal democracies is one of the EU’s biggest challenges.”

On Sunday, 25 September 2022, MEP Irena Joveva attended the EUROPE 2050 event in Warsaw, Poland. In her speech, Joveva pointed out that illiberal tendencies are still very much present in the EU, and that in some places the situation is even getting worse. She added that illiberalism is one of the major challenges in the EU, which she illustrated, among other things, with the example of Slovenia between 2020 and 2022.

During this time, the Slovenian Government, headed by Janez Janša, has vehemently attacked the public media, and threatened and pressurised journalists in order to curtail media freedom and subordinate the media landscape to its arbitrariness. At the same time, it seriously jeopardised the existence of the Slovenian Press Agency and did many other things. According to the MEP, the Slovenian electorate finally stood up to this and gave the victory in this year’s parliamentary elections to a liberal party.

“I am incredibly proud of what we have managed to achieve. We have indeed won an important and much needed battle against illiberalism. But it would be foolish to believe that we have won the war and wiped out the illiberal tendencies of our extremist right-wing party.“

She pointed out that the consequences of the actions by the previous government are most visible in the current state of the Slovenian public service broadcaster RTV, where the largest opposition party has gained absolute control and can thus continue its attacks on media freedom, preventing critical reporting.

Joveva explained that the EU was founded on six values: human rights, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human dignity. “It is departing from these values that could potentially break the EU, as these values are becoming an increasingly popular target for attacks by leading actors of illiberal populism.”

Nevertheless, she is convinced that the Slovenian liberal bloc will remain united and do everything to ensure that Slovenia never sees another Janez Janša government.

Besides MEP Irena Joveva, the event was attended by other prominent members of Renew Europe, including Stéphane Séjourné, its president in the European Parliament, Szymon Holownia, President of the Polska 2050 party, and Thierry Breton, European Commissioner.