Melania Trump, the disappointed hope of the Slovenes
In Sevnica, a small Slovenian town where Melania Trump grew up, the hopes raised four years ago by her new status have given way to a vague indifference, a few days before the American presidential election.
Will she stay in the White House? In the city of the enigmatic "First Lady", a hundred km from the capital Ljubljana, even the mayor does not openly take part for the ex-model, naturalized American in 2006.
"I don't want to comment on the ballot," Sreco Ocvirk laconically told AFP who, like most of his constituents, now has other concerns in mind.
The coronavirus pandemic occupies the first place in the conversations and when the Slovenian media evoke the American poll, it is to express their disappointment at the erased role played by Melania Trump and the little interest she has shown in her. native country.
Rare enthusiastic voice in the national political landscape, the conservative Prime Minister Janez Janza has loudly displayed his support for Donald Trump, but without a word for the Slovenian origins of his wife.
In a tweet, he crushed Joe Biden, "who would, if elected, be one of the weakest presidents in American history." And to add: "Go, win, Donald Trump!"
- Letters from lawyers -
In four years, Melania, née Knavs, has never deigned to give an interview in the language of her ancestors to address her own.
If she has kept the accent, she rarely mentions her small country in Central Europe, which was part of Yugoslavia and today has only two million inhabitants.
When she speaks of it, during her parsimonious appearances, it is to return to the "non-free communist state" that she left to pursue a career in the West. She has hardly ever set foot there again.
Communication with the Slovenes was limited to letters from lawyers warning against unauthorized commercial exploitation of the name or image of Mrs. Trump, the first wife of a U.S. president born abroad in nearly two years. centuries.
In one of the only articles devoted, in recent weeks, to the haughty fifty-something, the weekly Nedeljski Dnevnik returns, a bit acerbic, on "a woman who never looks back".
"Politicians and businessmen hoped that (Ljubljana's) ties with the White House would come out stronger ... tired, all these hopes turned out to be illusory," the magazine writes.
Sevnica can still be pleased to have attracted, thanks to the "Melania effect", tourists from the United States, whose number jumped by 50% between 2016 and 2019, despite sometimes rudimentary roads to reach this city of some 5,000 inhabitants, known for its medieval castle.
- "On the map" of the world -
Visitors can discover the cream-colored "Melanija" cake there, which has become a particularly sought-after delicacy according to the local pastry shop, when other businesses at the time launched slippers and burgers in honor of the local child. .
The tourist office also offers great luxury "First Lady" packages, with free gourmet basket and top-of-the-range wine on the menu.
"She put us on the map," admits the mayor. "It gave us the opportunity to show a wider audience all the beauties of our region".
However, since March and the emergence of the pandemic, visitors have been scarce and even the bar where the Republican president's victory was celebrated in 2016 will remain closed for the election on Tuesday, in the middle of the second wave of the Covid disease. -19.
From now on, no American star-spangled banner, but streets deserted by confinement and a few passers-by surprised to be questioned on the subject.
At the foot of the old concrete building of Melania, a retiree refusing to decline his name gives his prognosis: "I do not believe that Trump, who is not a good person, is going to win".
Finally in Sevnica, the most visible reference to the discreet icon is a life-size bronze statue, erected by American artist Brad Downey, which stands in the middle of a nearby field.
Unveiled last month, she has since been decked out in a mask, as a reminder of the recent contamination of the "First Lady".
