By: Gašer Blažič
Prime Minister Janez Janša is following Hungary on the path to authoritarianism, STA quotes today’s writing of the Financial Times. The newspaper refers to the statements of the President of the Court of Audit Tomaž Vesel, Constitutional Judge Rok Čeferin, and Marko Milosavljević from FDV on questionable methods of the government’s conduct in relation to supervisory institutions, the judiciary, and the media.
With such a high quality selection of interlocutors, we could of course laugh or be bored, because until the arrival of the current government, foreign media were not interested in Slovenia at all – even when it had very serious problems with democracy, even though the latter is only formal. Perhaps it has recently become interesting because it is supposed to be included in the context of the new conservatism or “urbanism,” as leftists call the spread of political influence of the so-called new right. And of course, they never forget to say that authoritarianism is a trait that adorns right wing governments. And the current Slovenian government is supposed to be the extreme right. Right?! Right wing! And of course all the alarms are ringing, because it seems that a new autocratic ruler like Pinochet is rising in the subalpine Augean barn, to whom even the Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko – as Kučan’s most famous friend in Eastern Europe is called in Belarusian – is not equal to. Regardless of the fact that “Saša” landed a civilian plane yesterday, so that he was able to get his hands on one of the Belarusian opposition leaders, who certainly does not have a bright future after his arrest. But this is just news that the Slovenian mainstream media is not very interested in.
Is the government of Janez Janša really such a mess? A difficult question that is even harder to answer. If you ask me, the current government has taken some very welcome steps towards normalcy. Of course, this does not mean that Slovenia is already a normal country. But it is on the right track. I have pointed out several times that “insurgent” attacks on the government do not happen because the government would do something (wrong), but because it has not done it yet, but it could. These are therefore preventive attacks with the purpose of psychological intimidation. The effect of such attacks is threefold: first, the government does not dare to go too far with its plans to normalise society; second, attacks on the government in public (including internationally) give the impression that we are in a kind of “state of war” that makes voters want peace; and third, due to unfulfilled programme commitments (resulting in intimidation and media pomp), coalition parties find themselves in conflict with much of their own electoral base. The ultimate goal of these effects, however, is for the spring option to collapse in the new elections, because a large part of its own electoral base would also renounce its allegiance. Which means that the old elected officials in a new guise would come to power again, who will probably not repeat Marjan Šarec’s mistake by throwing in the towel. And we will be able to lament again at old stories of unfinished transition, money laundering, and poking private pockets with taxpayer money. For if the transitional left masters anything, it is primarily the engineering of human souls.
This, of course, does not absolve the current coalition of responsibility for a possible defeat that would follow due to the resistance of many sympathisers of the so-called right wing options – and of course here I join those who believe that the current government is in fact “not right wing enough”. Some foreign policy moves have recently been a cause for concern, namely concessions to Turkey and Albania, thus two Muslim-majority countries. It is clear that no one in their right mind can blindly trust the Turkish autocrat Erdogan, who can trigger a new wave of migration and Islamisation of Europe, and thus of Slovenia, by issuing Turkish passports to Muslim migrants currently in Turkey. However, it is true that before the start of the EU presidency, Slovenia cannot afford any unwise move that would lead to an open conflict between the EU and Turkey, much less during its presidency. Diplomacy is a pragmatic affair, Pope Paul VI. also state-like accepted the communist leader Josip Broz Tito, whose totalitarian regime killed, burned, imprisoned or otherwise persecuted Catholic priests (and also bishops). But pragmatism should not yet be an excuse for naivety, as the consequences could be too tragic. However, if each government acts pragmatically, it should also present possible safeguards that could calm the most hot-blooded disappointed citizens, who are still waiting for the withdrawal from the Marrakesh Declaration and the closure of the southern border (which is of course impossible in practice, unless we build a wall on the border with Croatia, but I doubt anyone really wants that). This could prevent possible passivation of voters.
After all, we should not look calmly at the other sinister plans of the transition godparents from the background. For example, Gregor Golobič, who wants to enthrone the current President of the National Assembly Igor Zorčič at the top of the DeSUS party. This could pull the current DeSUS MPs and four unaffiliated MPs in one boat, thus giving KUL the necessary 46 votes to overthrow the current government. Another notorious plan is to spread the anti-vaccine agenda, both on a scientific and spiritual level – the covert goal of this agenda is to convince people that the current “Satanist” government wants to vaccinate us with a toxic vaccine and even chip us, which is supposed to be an introduction to the last days of the antichrist. Here, too, the aim is to force Christians to stay at home during the elections and thus make room for the rise of the far left. However, when the latter would come to power, it would be too late and if you happen to have some more property, you will have to give it up. The programme of the Levica Party is very clear and very sharp-tongued, it speaks of a replay of events after 1945, when, after the first big bloody showdown, class enemies were forcibly expropriated. Would you like to take this lesson again? Here you go!
In short, the Financial Times writes about something that does not even exist. And it is clear that the client of such writing is from Slovenia. If foreign media writes about it, the engineering of human souls is even more effective.
Gašper Blažič is a journalist for Demokracija, a daily editor on the website demokracija.si, and acting editor of the web portal Blagovest.si.