Slovenia’s leftist Ljevica party, which supported the formation of minority government led by Marjan Sarec in September this year, said on Friday the Prime Minister Sarec’s hesitation to demand Italy to ban a “neofascist gathering”, announced to be held in Trieste in two weeks, was worrying.

The gathering, organised by the far-right Italian party CasaPound, is scheduled to be held on November 3 in the Italian coastal city of Trieste near the border with Slovenia. The group’s name was inspired by the American modernist poet Ezra Pound and his poem Cantos, as well as his open sympathies for the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his fascist regime.

It is concerning that Sarec’s government does not see this as a problem, the Ljevica MP Matej Vatovec told the Vecer daily.

He added that the party had tried to convinced the Prime Minister a month ago to request a ban from the Italian government, but that he had never even responded to them, even though the Trieste gathering is one of the “signs of growing nationalist and extreme-right forces in Europe.”

When asked what the Slovenian government was planning to do about the Trieste gathering, Sarec’s office responded that the Prime Minister was “very concerned about any and all expressions of hatred and intolerance.”

Sarec’s cabinet, which was voted in with 45 votes in favour and 34 against, while 11 were abstained or were absent, in the 90-seat parliament, is made up of five smaller centre left and liberal parties. Sarec, a newcomer on the national political landscape who ran on a centrist platform, is a former actor and comedian, and is the youngest Prime Minister in the history of the country. The coalition was supported by 9 MPs of the Ljevica party under a special cooperation protocol.

Slovenian media reported on Friday that the Ljevica was critical of Sarec’s passivity, but also the fact that he had appointed Damir Crncec as his national security advisor.

Crncec is former head of Slovenia’s Intelligence and Security Agency, and is known for his right-wing, anti-immigrant stances, the Slovenian media said.

The Ljevica warned that the public in Italy, including Trieste mayor Rober Piazza, had condemned the CasaPound march in Trieste.

On the other hand, the Slovenian media reported, the Italian coalition government is turning further and further right, so Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, said he had nothing against the far-right march in Trieste, adding everyone in Italy were free to gather and express their views.

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