Columns and speeches on democracy, Europe and Slovenia
A fortnightly column in the Slovenian daily Večer since April 2018: 188 columns to the end of 2025 and newer pieces since, every one of them in English and in the Slovenian original. Alongside them, speeches from his years as Director for Democracy at the Council of Europe, in the original language, mostly English.
Before the US midterms · From 2020
The Doctrine of Stolen Elections
For a populist there are only two kinds of elections: the ones they win, and the ones that were stolen. A column from 2020, for the vote on 3 November.
Every column, year by year
- Remembering Democracy
- Hold My Beer, Says History
- Hang the Doggy
- Not in a collection
Latest
- Three Days on a Desert Island Without Snuff
A friend and colleague of my father’s, a legendary Dnevnik photojournalist, when asked in the 1970s what it had been like in the Partisans, replied that it had been very hard. For wine there was only refosco,…
- The French Presidential Race After the Local Elections
Arcis-sur-Aube, a small rural town of fewer than three thousand inhabitants, a good two hours’ drive east of Paris, was until recently known mainly as the site of the battle in which, in March 1814, Austrian,…
- The World Rests on the Young
In Spain’s Asturias, time runs more slowly. Even if you want to have a glass or two in company, you will need a few hours if you stick to local customs. In Asturias they drink cider. But not just any old way,…
- Artificially Intelligent Traditional Values
If you have been wandering around our corners of the world’s social media lately, you have probably come across artificially intelligent graphic depictions of love for traditional values.
- The Persecution of the Differently Differently Differently Minded
“The differently minded” was the label adopted years ago by the pioneers of the Slovenian fight against wokeness. The nom de guerre of brave souls who began to raise their voices against the tyranny and…
- Whoever Doesn’t Sit Isn’t Slovenian
Melania Trump reminds me of the Bosnian joke about Mujo sitting on a rock. “What’s up, Mujo, sitting and thinking?” “Nah, Haso, just sitting.”
Speeches
- Five Ingredients of Democracy
I'd like to start by congratulating and thanking the young artist for beautiful music. One of the things we believe in, in our work on democracy, is that there's no democracy without…
- Libraries, Culture and Democracy
You already introduced me with my function, and I think I probably have one of the most pretentious titles in the European institutional architecture: Director for Democracy. It started off…
- Older Than Turtles
Thank you very much, Ida, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to the Council of Europe Youth Center in Budapest, the wildest place in town, where all sorts of cool and important things are…
- Closing Conference of the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education
Dear Minister, dear participants, There is only one thing better than a very, very well prepared and interesting conference, and that is a very, very well prepared and interesting…
Essays
- Le 2 novembre 1995 French
Le 2 novembre 1995, j'étais assis dans un bureau au 6ème étage du Palais de l'Europe. C'était mon premier jour au Conseil de l'Europe et je fixais le clavier devant moi. Chaque touche était marquée d'une tache…
- Les six cercles de l'enfer de Nace French
Pančevo, Novi Sad, Grgur, Ugljan, Bileća, Povšetova - six cercles d'enfer pour le journaliste, alors âgée de vingt-deux ans, jeune communiste, qui croyait au paradis d'une société plus juste. Quelques jours…