STA, 3 July 2021 - President Borut Pahor assessed that Interior Minister Aleš Hojs saying that the term "swine" could apply to a key player in the EU administration is unbecoming of the post he holds. Hojs must find a way to apologise, said Pahor, adding that PM Janez Janša should also pay attention to this in the European Parliament on Tuesday.
Hojs caused confusion at Friday's briefing for Brussels correspondents, with the journalists interpreting one of his replies as taking aim at European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans with a pearls-swine metaphor.
They journalists confronted Hojs about the "do not cast pearls before swine" comment he made on Twitter about the Yellow Jackets, a far-right group linked to neo-Nazis which was removed from last Friday's anti-government protests in Ljubljana.
@policija_si bo pripravila poročilo vezano na ukrepanje zoper rumene jopiče. So pa po moji oceni, le ti, brez potrebe prišli na Prešernov trg,saj bi lahko kulturno proslavljali na Trgu Republike. Ne meči biserov med svinje, pravi Sveto pismo in lahko bi sledili tej modrosti.
— Aleš Hojs (@aleshojs) June 25, 2021
The minister responded by saying he did not refer to anyone as "swine" and later added that, taking into account what was said on Thursday, when the College of European Commissioners visited Slovenia, his comment might as well apply to a key player in the EU administration.
The journalists' first impression was that this was probably an allusion to Timmermans, who boycotted a group photo because of Prime Minister Janez Janša's comments about links between Slovenian judges and the Social Democrats (SD).
Speaking to the press on the sidelines of an event in Črna na Koroškem on Saturday, Pahor said that politicians and public personalities were obliged to refrain from words that some could understand as insulting.
Hojs's words are unbecoming of someone who holds such a senior position, he added.
"Especially when he speaks not only on his own behalf, on behalf of the government and our country, but on behalf of the EU Council, he must be extra careful what and how he says something so that it does not get met with lack of understanding.
We don't need to agree, he does not need to present a position that is necessarily acceptable for all, but it must be uttered respectfully," the president added.
Pahor also noted that Prime Minister Janez Janša is to present the Slovenian presidency's agenda to the European Parliament plenary on Tuesday and answer questions from MEPs.
The president hopes that Janša will be able to resist the temptation to "say everything that he thinks, in a way that he would perhaps want to, and that everything that he says will be said on behalf of Slovenia.
"He should be careful in doing so. I don't want to give advice, but I would like to see everything go well on Tuesday," said Pahor, assessing that Janša's appearance in the European Parliament could be decisive in Slovenia winning over the European parliament.
"The parliament is difficult to win over. One needs to be very crafty and the prime minister can be very crafty. But the questions is whether he will be crafty enough on Tuesday so that we win over the authority to chair the Council in such demanding dossiers," he concluded.
