By: Davorin Kopše
A little more than thirty years ago, Slovenians won our own country. We also made good use of that opportunity with the help of environmental influences and realised the millennial dreams of our ancestors. Towards the end of the 1980s, a Bolshevik house on the sand shook and fell in eastern Europe. The countries that formed the Eastern Bloc fell like dominoes. The dictators who played with the cards of Marx and Lenin were losing the last rounds of their poker games with the people pushing them to the ground all the time. The collapsed economy fell, and the system fell, which was also illustrated by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Democracy has opened its doors in this part of Europe as well.
A dictatorship, of course, is not if one political option claims it while the other is in power. The exchange of power is the foundation of democracy, and it is important that we recognise the election results. The government is made up of the one who received the most votes in the election. A dictatorship is a political arrangement in which the class or individual has unlimited power when democratic and parliamentary arrangements already exist. This is exactly what the current Slovenian opposition stands for – they are talking about dictatorship. In the last almost two years, it has proved that it wants power for itself at all costs. So, power for their political class, which they have maintained and brought around for over 75 years.
Dictatorship and totalitarianism are closely linked. They are actually one and the same. Dictatorship is possible only in totalitarianism. Speak of the devil, exactly those in Slovenia who are full of accusations about dictatorship have refused to condemn all totalitarian regimes already five times. This fact reveals them more than it seems at first glance. They want power that they cannot achieve democratically.
If they succeeded in this – a violent takeover of power, they could only establish a totalitarian government – a dictatorship, as they had in 1945. But they blame dictatorship to that democratic authority that ensures the smooth functioning of the state. This is their perverted way of working. They unfoundedly accuse what they want or are.
They know this differently. They accuse some independence fighters and others of being members of the League of Communists more than thirty years ago. They blame this on those that they overlooked, abandoned, and destroyed their system in the process of independence. This is the system they would like back. So, they are accusing something that some have been because of their tyranny and propaganda, and they still are because of the lust for dictatorial power.
KUL wants a dictatorship
By undermining the constitutional order, the self-proclaimed Coalition of the Constitutional Arc (KUL) is moving further and further away from what their title is supposed to mean. The striking force of this infamous association is the radical and increasingly violent Levica Party. With the populism that is characteristic of all totalitarian regimes, it also binds other KUL parties. They would not be able to do that if they also did not have extreme totalitarian tendencies.
Last Friday, a committee of the National Assembly in charge of education met, chaired by MP Iva Dimic, who is known for her tolerance and correctness. Amendments to the Law on the Organisation and Financing of Education (ZOFVI) were on the agenda. This law provides for more representation in school councils of representatives from the local environment, who would be appointed by municipal councils.
The eternal opponents of everything from the KUL association are, of course, also against these solutions, which bring more democracy and take some power away from the rulers. In doing so, they are referring to a kind of profession in schools that has nothing to do with all this. However, it had had to introduce PCT measures in the schools that has to implement them, and many schools have had problems implementing them, saying they did not have enough instructions. It was the same with conducting distance learning. It is this profession that they refer to.
At the meeting of the committee, which began at 2 pm, the MPs of the Levica and the MPs of the LMŠ were constantly procrastinating with replies and requests for procedural proposals, which were not substantive. Prior to the vote, all KUL parties each requested a 45-minute break for consultation. The request is legitimate, but it was clear and later in practice it turned out that they were merely tactical because they wanted to gain time.
Prior to the session, the chairwoman of the committee, Iva Dimic, asked the board of the presidents of the National Assembly for a work permit after 10 pm, if necessary. The board rejected this possibility by voting, but this is not binding for Members according to the Rules of Procedure. LMŠ MP Tina Heferle even claimed that the board had adopted a decision on this, which of course is not true, as the board cannot adopt such decisions. Especially not legally binding.
As the session was delayed, MP Luka Mesec from Levica’s KUL demanded an immediate adjournment of the session at exactly 10 pm, which had always been the goal of the KUL dictatorship fighters. As Iva Dimic did not want to interrupt the session, as no other deadlines were available for the end of the session, the MPs of the Levica and the LMŠ erupted in their true character, which does not allow any form of democratic response.
Mesec therefore gave intonation to his proclaimed orchestra to begin to brawl. They started walking around the hall and staging a circus. They pounded on tables and turned-on microphones to echo around the hall. Because Mesec did not receive a word during the voting, he arbitrarily turned-on the microphone and announced his speech with the words that he had just taken the floor. He did not even stop when the chairwoman turned off his microphone… Boštjan Koražija from the Levica party demanded an immediate convocation of the parliamentary speaker’s board at 11 pm because the committee session did not end at 10 pm. So, the time is right for the board, but not for the committee. Idiots in all their glory.
MP Kovačič from Alenka Bratušek’s party, in his excitement for no real reason, repeatedly announced his obstruction and even left the hall, but he returned each time. One time, after one of his returns to the hall, he even shouted “fascism”. Nothing new, they have their mouths full of words that best describe them or their methods, with which they try to assert their only salvation in everything.
Arbitrariness is the attitude of a dictator
Despite fulfilling all the conditions, the President of the National Assembly decided not to include the amendments to the ZOFVI adopted by the committee at the December session. He announced that this would not be discussed until the January session. He did this mischievously, as he found that he had no formal reasons to annul the decision of the MPs at the committee, which was demanded of him by anti-democratic MPs from the KUL.
His decision to postpone the hearing of this matter is unusual, and he has no basis in anything. This is pure arbitrariness, which further hinders the ongoing work of the parliament. As there are no effective means against this mischievousness of the President of the National Assembly, there is a danger that he will continue to use it in the future, which will be at the expense of democracy and efficient work.
Such a way of governing the parliament prevents or hinders democratic processes in the legislative branch of government. Obstruction of democracy can be nothing more than the pursuit of dictatorship, which is the only counterweight to democracy. A combination of both is not possible. We can only have one or the other, and the path to dictatorship always begins with the violation of democratic rights.
Davorin Kopše is a veteran of the war for Slovenia, a candidate for MEP and an active citizen.