Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob has called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to investigate alleged meddling by Israel’s Black Cube intelligence agency, Politico reports.
In a letter seen by Politico, Golob wrote that such interference by a private foreign company constitutes a hybrid threat to the European Union and its member states, and negatively impacts or could impact common values, procedures and political processes. He added that the trend of deceptive actions by foreign influence agents has resurfaced just before the parliamentary elections, threatening Slovenia’s democratic processes.
Slovenia will hold parliamentary elections on the 22nd of March. The liberal Golob will face right-wing populist Janez Janša, who is slightly ahead in recent polls.
Leaked audio and video recordings in March, designed to implicate Golob’s government in corruption, showed high-ranking Slovenian figures allegedly discussing illegal lobbying and the waste of public funds.
This week, Slovenian authorities said four Black Cube operatives were in the country,
carrying out illegal surveillance and eavesdropping. Black Cube is a private intelligence company founded by former members of the Israel Defense Forces. Company representatives declined to comment.
Golob referred in his letter to Black Cube’s past operations, including work in Romania and Hungary over the past decade. The politician stressed that such repeated interference by foreign agents in EU processes poses a direct threat to the recently established European Democracy Shield. He called for an investigation into the situation, referring it to the European Centre for Democratic Resilience so that it can conduct an immediate risk assessment.
The European Democracy Shield is an EU initiative aimed at protecting member states from foreign influence and hybrid threats. It does this by strengthening surveillance, coordinated action and immediate response to the spread of disinformation and covert influence operations.
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