Slovenian’s left-wing government has proposed former ambassador Marta Kos as its nominee for the European Commissioner after Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen reportedly pressured it into abandoning the first-choice candidate because he was a man.
Tomaz Vesel, a former auditor, withdrew his candidature on Friday amid reports that, during a visit to Slovenia last week, von der Leyen had put pressure on prime minister Robert Golob to nominate a woman to the role—to ensure gender parity on the new Commission.
“Unfortunately, President von der Leyen and I do not share the same concept of how the European Commission should work and I have therefore decided to withdraw my candidacy for the good of the Republic of Slovenia,” Vesel said on Friday.
Kos, 59, is Slovenia’s former ambassador to Switzerland and Germany. She was briefly a presidential candidate for Golob’s left-wing Freedom Movement, but stood down after falling out with Golob.
As we reported previously, von der Leyen has been trying to pressure smaller countries into nominating women in her quest for a Commission that is half male and half female. She had originally asked European Union member states to put up two nominees, one man and one woman, for her to choose between. Nearly all member states ignored this request.
Even with Slovenia caving in, von der Leyen still has a way to go before achieving her goal; only 10 candidates are women (excluding von der Leyen herself), whereas 16 are male.
Despite the deadline for choosing nominees having already passed, unnamed diplomats revealed last week that von der Leyen was also trying to strongarm Malta into dropping its male nominee:
The [Maltese] government must decide: stand by our nominee and look strong but get a weaker portfolio. Or swap nominee, look weak but get a stronger brief.
There are still several weeks to go before hearings begin in the European Parliament to confirm the nominees. It remains to be seen whether other member states will give in to von der Leyen’s demands.
