Slovenia is preparing a referendum on withdrawal from the bloc as Trump\u2019s threats deepen internal divisions<\/p>\n
Slovenia\u2019s newly elected parliament speaker has announced plans to hold a referendum on withdrawing the country from NATO, as the US\u2011led military bloc reels from its worst internal crisis in decades with Washington threatening to pull out from the organization entirely.
\nThe leader of the Truth Party, Zoran Stevanovic, was elected as the head of the lower house last week. Speaking to public broadcaster RTVSLO, he stated that a vote on leaving the bloc was a campaign promise he intends to keep.
\n\u201cWe promised the people a referendum on the issue of leaving NATO, and we will hold this referendum,\u201d Stevanovic said.
\nThe speaker also signaled a possible visit to Moscow \u201cin the near future,\u201d stating he would like to \u201cbuild bridges and cooperate well with all countries, regardless of the wall that has been built between the West and the East.\u201d
\nThe push for a NATO exit vote comes as the 32\u2011member bloc has started to crack over US President Donald Trump\u2019s threats to withdraw support after European members refused to join the US\u2011Israeli war on Iran.\u00a0
\nTrump has repeatedly lashed out at European partners, calling them \u201ccowards\u201d and the bloc a \u201cpaper tiger,\u201d stating that US membership in NATO is \u201cbeyond reconsideration.\u201d His continued threats to annex Greenland from fellow member state Denmark have further escalated tensions within the bloc.
\nFormer NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has stressed that Trump\u2019s threats to withdraw from the bloc need to be taken seriously, adding that it is \u201cnot the law of nature that we have NATO forever\u201d or that it will \u201csurvive the next ten years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
EU Defense Agency head says compulsory military service could be necessary<\/p>\n
The divisions have prompted the European nations to quietly accelerate work on a \u201cEuropean NATO\u201d contingency plan. According to a Wall Street Journal report, officials have been informally drawing up plans to continue operating on the continent using the bloc\u2019s existing military structures in the event that the US reduces its role or withdraws entirely.\u00a0
\nIn Moscow, Russian Security Council Deputy Chair Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the EU itself quickly morphed into a \u201cfull\u2011fledged military component,\u201d it would be \u201cin some ways worse than NATO,\u201d arguing that Brussels has been inflating Russophobic hysteria to justify a large-scale military buildup in preparation for a possible war with Moscow.
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has also speculated that US threats to withdraw from NATO could be intended to shift the primary responsibility for \u201ccontaining Russia\u201d to Europe in order to free up Washington\u2019s own hands in the \u201cChinese direction.\u201d
\nMoscow has repeatedly denied any intention to attack NATO or EU countries, arguing that such claims are being used to justify massive investments in arms amid faltering economic growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slovenia is preparing a referendum on withdrawal from the bloc as Trump\u2019s threats deepen internal divisions Slovenia\u2019s newly elected parliament speaker has announced plans to hold a referendum on withdrawing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t