In a direct challenge to Slovenia's newly inaugurated administration, President Natasa Pirc Musar ordered the Palestinian flag to be raised over the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana on Friday. The executive action came less than twenty-four hours after the incoming Prime Minister, Janez Jansa, marked his first day in office by removing the flag from the main government headquarters.

According to Anadolu Agency, Pirc Musar announced that the flag would fly prominently on the palace facade for one week before being relocated inside the building as an ongoing symbol of opposition to gross violations of international humanitarian law, stressing that the unchecked genocide against Palestinians has denied peace and dignity to the people of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The presidential intervention has exposed an institutional rift within the EU member state following a turbulent transfer of power. Jansa, a staunch ally of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, quickly dismantled the visible remnants of his predecessor Robert Golob's pro-Palestine foreign policy, leaving only the Slovenian, Ukrainian, and EU flags at the government headquarters. Israel’s Foreign Ministry quickly celebrated Jansa's takeover, thanking the new premier and announcing plans to open an embassy in Ljubljana without delay as the new administration prepares to roll back state recognition of Palestine and relocate its embassy to occupied Jerusalem.

Under the previous government, Slovenia formally recognized Palestinian statehood in June 2024, enacted a comprehensive weapons trade ban against Israel, and enforced strict travel sanctions on certain Israeli ministers.

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