A new metal statue to First Lady Melania Trump has been unveiled near her hometown in Slovenia.
The bronze statue replaces a wooden sculpture erected in 2019, which was set alight shortly afterwards by unknown arsonists.
Some described the original as a “disgrace” or a “Smurfette”, saying it did not look like Melania Trump.
The new one features a plaque dedicating the sculpture to “the eternal memory of a monument to Melania which stood at this location”.
The First Lady was born in Novo Mesto in 1970, but grew up in the town of Sevnica, when Slovenia was part of the Communist nation of Yugoslavia.
American artist Brad Downey commissioned the original piece and placed it outside Sevnica in 2019.
The sculpture carved out of a tree trunk by local chainsaw artisan Ales Zupevc and depicted Melania Trump in a blue coat like the one she wore to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but bore only a loose resemblance to the First Lady.
The wooden sculpture was set alight on 4th of July this year, but Brad Downey has since exhibited the burnt statue in Slovenia, saying it “represents a visual representation of political tensions that are erupting in my country”.
The new statue, made of bronze and revealed to the public on September 15, is a replica of the original.
Slovenian artist Marko Vivoda told AP: “We are here today because we put up again a statue of Melania to the place where it was burnt and to commemorate the statue that was set on fire.”
Since the election of President Trump in 2016, tourists have come to Sevnica to learn more about the First Lady’s origins.
Residents have brought out ranges of Melania-branded merchandise, including slippers, cakes, and Trump-like burgers with fly-away cheese “hair”.
A wooden statue of Donald Trump also appeared in Sevnica last year.
The nearly 26ft tall statue depicted him with a square head and jaw and was similarly controversial before also being burnt down by unknown culprits in January 2020.
A statue of First Lady Melania Trump is reported to have been set on fire near her hometown in Slovenia, prompting its removal.
Brad Downey, the American artist who commissioned the statue, said it was targeted on the Independence Day.
The Berlin-based artist arranged for the charred statue to be removed the next day.
Police told Reuters they had launched an investigation.
The wooden sculpture of Melania Trump, which could be described as only bearing a crude likeness to the US first lady, was carved out of a tree trunk on the outskirts of Sevnica, her hometown in central Slovenia.
The statue, which depicts the first lady dressed in a blue coat similar to one she wore to President Donald Trump’s inauguration and with a club-like hand gesturing to the sky, received mixed reviews when it was erected in July 2019.
Some residents branded the statue a “disgrace”, complaining it looked more like the Smurfs character Smurfette than the first lady.
Brad Downey told Reuters he wanted to understand who targeted the statue and why.
The artist said he had hoped the statue would open a dialogue about the political situation in the US, including the fractious debate on immigration.
Melania Trump, a model who grew up in Slovenia when it was part of Yugoslavia, moved to the US in the 1990s.
The statue in Slovenia was targeted at a time when monuments of US leaders with links to slavery are being re-evaluated as a result of national reflection prompted by anti-racism protests.
In recent speeches, including his Independence Day address, President Donald Trump has taken a hard-line against those who vandalize or tear down statues.
Since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, Sevnica has become a tourist magnet, as visitors search for an insight into Melania Trump’s early years.
Residents have brought out ranges of Melania-branded merchandise, including slippers, cakes, and Trump-like burgers with fly-away cheese “hair”.
In August 2019, a wooden statue of President Trump was constructed in Slovenia, east of the capital Ljubljana. Like the rendering of Melania Trump, the statue of her husband divided opinion.
Standing nearly 26ft tall, the statue was burnt to the ground by unknown arsonists in January 2020.
Slovenia is bracing for a refugee influx after Hungary shut its border with Croatia to try to stem the numbers arriving en route to Western Europe.
Refugees have already begun to arrive in Slovenia by bus from Croatia.
Hungary closed its Croatia frontier on October 16 and now says it will reintroduce controls on its Slovenia border.
Many of the refugees aim to continue north to Austria and Germany.
Nearly 600,000 refugees have reached the EU by sea so far this year, many travelling from Turkey to Greece.
However, more than 3,000 have perished trying to cross the Mediterranean. Many refugees are Syrians fleeing the civil conflict there.
Hungary said it shut the border with Croatia after EU leaders failed to agree its plan to send a force to prevent migrants reaching Greece.
The closure of Hungary’s border with Croatia comes just a month after it shut its frontier with Serbia, which was another transit route to Western Europe.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said border controls with Slovenia would be temporarily reinstated to safeguard Hungary from a “mass wave of unidentified, uncontrolled refugees”.
Hungary and Slovenia are both part of the passport-free Schengen zone, but Croatia is not.
Until October 16, 5,000 to 8,000 people were being allowed across Hungary every day, without registration, bound for Austria.
There are fears in Slovenia, a nation of some two million people, that the latest border closure will channel many more migrants through the country.
Extra police had been deployed to the border with Croatia, Slovene Interior Minister Vesna Gjorkos Znidar said.
However, Slovenia will keep accepting refugees as long as Austria and Germany’s borders remain open, she said.
Slovenia’s national security council is due to meet on October 17.
All passenger rail transport from Croatia has already been stopped.
Those arriving by road will be transferred to a migrant centre near the Austrian border after a registration procedure, AP quoted police spokeswoman Suzana Raus as saying.
The past month has seen some 3,000 refugees pass through Slovenia, Reuters news agency reported. Slovenia has said it was in a position to accommodate up to 8,000 refugees per day.
Slovenians are voting today in a presidential run-off following days of protests over budget cuts and alleged government corruption.
The vote pits incumbent Danilo Turk against former PM Borut Pahor, who is favored to win by opinion polls.
On Friday, a number of people were injured as protesters clashed with police in the capital Ljubljana.
Slovenia is facing one of the deepest recessions among the 17 countries in the eurozone.
The country’s economy has shrunk more than 8% since 2009.
Thirty-three people were charged with public order offences after the trouble in Ljubljana, police said.
Slovenian vote pits incumbent Danilo Turk against former PM Borut Pahor, who is favored to win by opinion polls
A protest that attracted thousands of people earlier in the week in the second city, Maribor, also turned violent.
Polls across Slovenia are due to open at 07:00 local time and close at 19:00 with first results expected within hours.
Borut Pahor won the first round of the election, and recent opinion polls suggest the ex-PM will be triumphant again on Sunday.
Commenting on the recent protests in the country, Borut Pahor told the Associated Press that the demonstrations “signal a lack of confidence” in government institutions.
Many protesters are angry at what they describe as harsh austerity measures being implemented by the current centre-right government.
They also accuse the government of corruption – a claim denied by the authorities.
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