The candidate of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) for head the European Commission, Guy Verhofstadt, is due to visit Slovenia on Monday to rally support for ALDE partners in the country ahead of the May elections to the European Parliament.
As part of the visit, the head of the ALDE group in the European Parliament will meet with representatives of four liberal parties in Slovenia: the coalition Positive Slovenia (PS) and Citizens List (DL) and the non-parliamentary LibDems and Zares.
While the two ruling parties were established after the last EU elections and have no MEPs, the LibDems and Zares each have an MEP but will contest the election after being voted out of the Slovenian parliament in the last general election.
To make matters even more complicated for the liberal forces in the country, Zares MEP Ivo Vajgl recently switched allegiances to the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS).
Recent statements from ALDE officials indicate that Verhofstadt could use the visit to check the possibility for an alliance of the liberal parties in Slovenia.
While PS and DL had discussed a joint bid, those plans fell through after Slovenia's member of the European Commission Janez Potočnik turned down an offer to run on their slate.
Verhofstadt is scheduled to hold a press conference with MEP Jelko Kacin and LibDems leader Anton Anderlič and take part in a round table on the future of the EU organised by the International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES).
The former Belgian Prime Minister will become the second candidate for president of the European Commission to visit Slovenia after leader of the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Martin Schulz visited Slovenia two weeks ago.
Source: TheSloveniaTimes
