Slovenia’s Minister for Digital Transformation, Emilija Stojmenova Duh, has resigned following an unauthorized use of blue lights during a highway incident on the Südautobahn (A2) in Styria, Austria. Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob accepted her resignation on Thursday evening, as announced on the Slovenian government’s X account.
Golob must now officially inform the Parliament. The minister’s term ends once the National Assembly is notified of the resignation. Stojmenova Duh stated in Ljubljana on Thursday that she is taking “objective responsibility” for the incident in May, making her comments just hours before a scheduled no-confidence vote initiated by the opposition.
Earlier in the day, at a hastily arranged press conference, the minister denied all allegations, labeling them as misinformation and criticizing media coverage. She explained that she was only a passenger during the incident and that her driver acted on the advice of a “senior inspector” in Ljubljana, with whom he was in contact during the trip. The use of the blue lights occurred on May 26 when the minister’s car was stuck in traffic on the A2 near Hartberg due to an accident, and she was at risk of missing her flight from Vienna International Airport.
The incident became public on Wednesday through the news portal N1, which published a letter from the ministry to the Slovenian embassy in Vienna, along with the embassy’s response. The letter requested that the embassy intervene with Austrian authorities to avoid pursuing the case. The minister’s car had been caught speeding during the blue light drive, resulting in a traffic fine issued by the relevant authority. The embassy replied that the fine should be paid and noted that using blue lights is prohibited.
Blue lights are only allowed for vehicles in police-escorted convoys, as outlined in a letter signed by Ambassador Aleksander Geržina. He added that, even in Slovenia, using blue lights in this situation would have been illegal. Geržina stated that he consulted with the Foreign Ministry before responding. The ministry is led by Tanja Fajon, a former party colleague of Stojmenova Duh. Stojmenova Duh was elected to parliament in 2022 on the Social Democrat list but became a minister in Robert Golob’s Freedom Movement (GS) government after his election victory.
Stojmenova Duh rejected any misconduct allegations and called for an investigation into the incident, insisting that the actions were “in line with the usual protocol.” She also criticized the timing of the revelations, which came two days before the opposition’s no-confidence motion. The motion concerns a controversial €6.5 million procurement of computers intended for disadvantaged groups, of which only 3,000 out of 13,000 laptops have been distributed. Stojmenova Duh had already survived a no-confidence vote related to this issue in May.
The minister’s fate appeared sealed by Thursday morning when the two coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SD) and the Left, announced they would abstain from the no-confidence vote on Friday. According to reports from the Slovenian news agency STA, even Prime Minister Golob, who brought Stojmenova Duh into the government, was dissatisfied with her performance. Golob is currently attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
