Slovenia’s prime minister hunts for enemies

“VICTORY!” SLOVENIA HAS CONQUERED COVID-19, shouts the cover of a magazine that backs Janez Jansa, the prime minister. On June 1st American military jets helped the country to celebrate by streaking across the sky, while three propeller planes from Slovenia’s air force puttered along too. Now is the time, says Mr Jansa, who became prime minister for the third time in March, to ensure that recession does not turn into depression and that Slovenia preserves its reputation as “a safe and orderly country”.

Mr Jansa, whose entire adult life has been entwined with the history of modern Slovenia, has a point. His country does indeed have a good reputation. Since its ten-day war for independence when he was defence minister during Yugoslavia’s collapse in 1991, it has drawn little attention. Considered neither fully central European nor properly Balkan, Slovenia is often seen as the goody-two-shoes that emerged unscathed from the wreckage of Yugoslavia, and duly joined NATO and the EU in 2004.