(by Valeria Pace)
Tanja Fajon, deputy Pm and leader
of Social Democrats in Slovenia (the party is affiliated to the
Party of European Socialists), hopes that at the European
elections in June "the core European values of solidarity,
democracy and rule of law will prevail". Fajon spoke to ANSA
after a press conference in Trieste.
"Slovenia is celebrating in May the 20th anniversary of
membership in the EU and for me European elections in June are
very important", Fajon underscored. "We see a lot of armed
conflicts around us. We have a brutal Russian aggression
entering the third year in Ukraine, we see now the war in Gaza
and the crisis in the Middle East, and what I urge is that we
have to defend our democracy, our rule of law solidarity. These
are the core values of European integration", she remarked,
highlighting that "we are building a safe Europe for our
citizens, a dignity life for our citizens based on solidarity
and democracy and rule of law".
However, "we should not be scared" about the rise of
populism, rather "we shall be aware that there are people that
don't have proper conditions to live and that don't have the
same values as us" and "address fears and questions that people
have today", she added.
One of the key campaign themes for right-wing populist
parties is migration. According to Fajon, this theme "is abused
for domestic political purposes, and I say it's not a question
of left or right" but it is simply "a question" that does not
"simple or a single answer". "We need to work together, the
whole European Union but my point is we have to address it in a
human way, but not manipulate and not misuse the topic and scare
people about migrants", instead we need to discuss "who are the
people that are in need who are fleeing from war or from climate
change or natural disasters", Fajon added.
"The fight against irregular migration, the fight against
criminal networks that are trading with human lives is something
that is in our focus" and "we need to work hard hand in hand
with neighbouring countries, as we are already doing, especially
with Italy, Austria and Croatia to really protect our outside
Schengen border", the Slovenian FM stressed. "On the other hand,
we have to find a legal way for those who are seeking refugee
status or subsidiary status, so they have chance to come and ask
for protection, so I'm happy to see that the European Commission
has recently adopted a common Migration and Asylum package, it
is a step in the right direction", she added. In the regional
perspective, in "our area here it is important that our police
units are working together and together with Frontex on the
Western Balkan area to ensure that we will be soon in a position
to restore Schengen and to abolish interior border controls", an
objective, Fajon announced in Trieste, that is aimed to be
reached by summer.
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