By: Nina Žoher / Nova24tv
On the occasion of the Remembrance of the Dead, the Slovenian Army Guard, on behalf of Prime Minister Janez Janša, laid a wreath at the monument to the fallen home guards in Žale, Ljubljana. When the government announced the news via its official Twitter profile, a bunch of critics poured in from the left political pole, clearly and loudly condemning the act and announcing that the Home Guard did not deserve a wreath. Theologian Dr Ivan Štuhec emphasised that he was not surprised by the reaction of the left, as all categories as far as Slovenia’s past is concerned were demolished in one way or another. “It is only right that the representatives of the state pay homage to all the victims of World War II. We have to finally end this story,” he is convinced.
Former Minister of Education, Science and Sport Jernej Pikalo from the ranks of the SD party described the act as a deliberate indulgence in the post-war consensus of the world order. He wrote the following: “One is piety towards the dead, and quite another is the glorification of the forces that cooperated with the occupier and even swore allegiance to the leader of Greater Germany. It is a deliberate delving into the post-war consensus of a world order based on the victory of Allied forces over Nazism.”
Party colleague Marko Koprivc addressed a parliamentary question to the government, asking how the government and its president justify laying a state wreath on the Home Guard, whom he described as Hitler’s oaths. According to the STA’s reporting, Koprivc also asked the following: “Do you not know that a free and democratic Europe and with it Slovenia is based on anti-fascism? Do you not know that without resistance against the occupier, especially against Nazi Germany and its helpers, such as the Home Guard, the Slovenian nation as an ethnic community could be destroyed?” The Secretary General of the Alenka Bratušek party, Jernej Pavlič, wrote in a sign of disagreement in English: “What will the SMC party and Zdravko Počivalšek do? This has gone too far.” They also reported in LMŠ and Levica. Former Prime Minister and President of the LMŠ party Marjan Šarec is convinced that this is a political abuse of the Slovenian Army. Everyone deserves a burial, but not wreaths and glory, he says. In a sign of opposition, he wrote on Twitter that this was supposed to be a deliberate ideological act to divert attention from other fiascos of this government, especially tackling the epidemic. He is convinced that this act needs to be condemned. The leader of the parliamentary group of the Levica, Matej T. Vatovec, expressed his belief that currently the government prefers to lay wreaths to the Home Guard, rather than to manage the serious situation regarding the epidemic and the spread of the new coronavirus.
On the left, they are hostile to all the people who were victims of the revolution
We asked moral theologian Dr Ivan Štuhec, who said at the beginning that he did not think this was anything new on the part of the left. In any case, according to him, all categories have been demolished as far as Slovenia’s past is concerned. “First, they have no idea what was actually going on or they do not want to know. Second, not only are they historically uneducated, but they are also hostile to all the people who were victims of the revolution. Because they argue that the revolution is something legitimate, they also continue to argue that those who were against the revolution and fought to defend their lives and defend their property, that they were enemies or as they call them fascists and the like.”
The only totalitarians were communists
Štuhec emphasises that there were no fascists in Slovenia because there could not be any, namely the fascists were Italians. “There were no National Socialists in Slovenia because they were Germans. The only totalitarians in Slovenia were the communists who made a revolution during the most tragic period of World War II,” he stressed, adding that it is only right for the President or the Prime Minister to lay a wreath to others and not just partisans. However, both of them did this two years ago under Macesnova gorica in Kočevski Rog, he recalled and added that home guards were also killed there, but no one spoke out at the time. “At that time, the President and the Prime Minister showed a worthy honour to all those killed who ended up in Macesnova Gorica, as well as to others. We have to end this story once and for all, and it is only right that the representatives of the state pay homage to all the victims of World War II,” he is convinced.