Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, on Wednesday as the country's nationalist prime minister, Janez Janša, oversaw the inauguration of Israel's first-ever embassy in Slovenia — a move that has triggered fierce domestic opposition and a formal bid to remove him from office.
Janša, who took office in July following a political shift away from the centre-left government of his predecessor Robert Golob, has made closer ties with Israel a centrepiece of his foreign policy. At the embassy opening, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar — who travelled to Ljubljana for the occasion — called it a "historic day" and "a clear expression of Israel's commitment to our friendship." Slovenian Foreign Minister Tone Kajzer described the event as the beginning of "greater dialogue, stronger cooperation and more tangible results for the benefit of our people." The Golob government had recognised a Palestinian state, imposed an arms embargo on Israel, banned imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and barred senior Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from entering Slovenia. Upon taking office, Janša reversed all of those measures and removed the Palestinian flag from the government building where it had flown alongside Slovenian, EU and Ukrainian flags.
The diplomatic reset has provoked a sharp public backlash. Protesters marched past the hotel hosting the inauguration carrying banners reading "We stand together for peace and Palestine" and "Genocide is not self-defence." A June poll by the Slovenian daily Delo found that 56 percent of citizens opposed closer ties with Israel, while only 14 percent supported them. Political analyst Andraž Zorko told the Associated Press that the policy shift "does not align with what he believes is the prevailing public opinion" in the country of some two million people. In parliament, Golob's liberal Freedom Movement joined the Left party to submit an impeachment proposal against Janša, primarily over a foreign policy they argue serves Israeli interests exclusively. They also sought to remove Foreign Minister Kajzer, and described the embassy opening as "a return of the favour" for what they alleged was Israeli support for Janša during March's elections.
The embassy opening comes at a paradoxical moment in Israel's international standing. The day before, twelve countries — including the United Kingdom, France and Canada — announced new trade sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, the latest sign of growing Western displeasure with Israel's conduct in Gaza. Israel responded angrily to the UK measures, announcing it would close the British consulate in Jerusalem. Yet the Ljubljana inauguration illustrates a parallel Israeli strategy: cultivating ties with nationalist and populist governments globally — from Donald Trump's United States to Javier Milei's Argentina — to offset diplomatic isolation elsewhere. With the EU remaining divided on further sanctions partly due to resistance from nationalist-led member states, Wednesday's events in Ljubljana captured in miniature the broader fault lines now running through Western policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.