Over the past eight years, Austria has repeatedly increased controls at its border with Slovenia due to the refugee crisis. Our neighbors are very dissatisfied with this. President Natasa Pirc Musar has now even warned not to further test her country’s patience and has threatened to involve the EU Commission in this dispute if “an agreement is not reached quickly”.
As a first measure, Pirc Musar wants to send a notification to the EU Commission and take further steps within the Brussels administration, Pirc Musar said on Tuesday, as Vienna had “no argument at all” for the controls after eight years of repeated extensions.
Pirc Musar: “Austria does not respect the legal system”
Slovenia has shown in recent years “that it can be patient and wants to solve problems in a different way”, Pirc Musar stressed. “It was extended 16 times, every six months, and we all know that Austria has absolutely no arguments for extending these border controls,” Pirc Musar criticized. “As a lawyer, I regret that Austria does not respect the European legal system on this point,” said the lawyer.
In the summer, kilometers of traffic jams threaten again
“I don’t want another summer season where people roast in the tin hose, even though Slovenia and Austria are both in the Schengen area and you have to run across the border,” said the passionate motorcyclist. She claimed that the fight against illegal migration could be carried out “with less drastic measures”.
At the same time, Pirc Musar emphasized that she sees Austria as a “friendly country”. As before in conversation with Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen (see video above), she campaigned for further development of the rights of the Slovenian minority in Austria. She highlighted climate protection as a major concern. “Every day we have to speak louder and louder about climate change, because our planet, the only one we have, is not doing well.”
Pirc Musar sees no alternative to the use of nuclear energy in her country. “We have to be realistic. At the moment Slovenia cannot survive in the energy sector without a nuclear power plant and that is a fact,” she said. The Krsko nuclear power plant supplies one third of Slovenia’s electricity needs. of Sotanj, which must be closed for reasons of climate protection According to Pirc Musar, the decision to build a new reactor unit in Krsko is likely to take years.
In Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Pirc Musar pushed for further support to Kiev. “If we stop helping Ukraine now, it will be the end of Ukraine,” she said. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin wants “more and that is dangerous”. His next destination after Ukraine is Moldova. Still, Pirc Musar was “somewhat surprised” by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement that Ukraine should join the alliance.
End of Ukraine war ‘unfortunately not yet close’
The end of the war is “unfortunately not near” for Pirc Musar. “I always say that I have yet to meet a European statesman who is not for peace. The problem we have is that right now we just don’t know how to achieve peace,” she said.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
