EU Commission says ‘everyone’ should wait for official election results after Slovenia's PM claims Trump victory
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Your support makes all the difference.European Union Commission chief spokesperson Eric Mamer has urged “everyone” to wait for the results of the US election to be formally declared after Slovenia Prime Minister Janez Janša appeared to back President Donald Trump’s claims that he had won the US presidential election without basis.
“It’s pretty clear that American people have elected Donald Trump [and] Mike Pence for 4 more years,” Janša tweeted on Wednesday morning as the results of the U.S. election continued to roll in.
Mr Janša then went on to congratulate the Republican Party for “strong results across the US”.
The Slovenian prime minister’s tweet came after Trump himself baselessly claimed that he had won the election.
Addressing concerns over Mr Janša’s tweet, Mr Mamer told reporters that he had no direct comment to make on the Slovenian prime minister’s message, despite Slovenia being an EU-member country.
“I would say that we would recommend to everyone to follow what’s happening in the US. The process is ongoing in the United States,” he said.
“Our expectation is that the authorities responsible for the processing being carried out in the United States should announce the results,” Mr Mamer asserted.
Pressed on whether there were concerns over disinformation on Mr Janša’s part and whether the Slovenian prime minister would be confronted on his statement, Mr Mamer said he did not wish to “make any further comment on this issue".
“I said what I had to say on it,” he said. “We take the view that it is up to everyone themselves to take account of what is proclaimed by the various authorities in terms of the vote there.”
“I think that’s the only thing that can be said today on this topic,” he said.
That response, however, was not sufficient for journalists, with reporter Christian Spillmann pushing Mr Mamer to respond on whether Mr Janša’s tweet violated the EU Commission’s standards on preventing misinformation and disinformation.
“At the minimum, this tweet is erroneous because as things stand, it’s false; its’ wrong,” Mr Spillmann said.
“I didn’t say that the tweet wasn’t wrong or false,” Mr Mamer said.
“It is important to adhere to what is said by the U.S. electoral authorities,” he repeated.
“As regards the tweet, a different view was expressed there. Yes, I totally acknowledge that, but we have to stick to what we have to stick to,” he said.
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