By: Moja Dolenjska
In the following, we are publishing the response of SDS president Janez Janša to Eva Irgl regarding her departure from the Slovenian Democratic Party.
“Dear Eva,
If I had opened your letter yesterday, before your departure was covered in the media, I would likely have responded simply: expected, interesting timing, thank you for your contribution, return the mandate, good luck, and all the best.
However, since I opened your letter in court during a break in the trial in Celje – where the soul, body, and common sense are tormented – and read your post on Facebook in the meantime, the whole situation seems much harsher to me.
For the broader Slovenian public, you wrote the following on Facebook:
‘The fact is that being trapped in an insulting and hostile atmosphere has been dragging us, as a society, down for a long time and paralysing our potential.
Political openness, diversity of views, and a willingness to jointly seek the best solutions can lift us up.’
By writing this upon your departure from the party, you are essentially accusing it of being guilty or complicit in such a state. It is like that saying, implying that it takes two to argue.
But when it comes to the hostility you describe, a more appropriate response to this phrase is: It also takes two for murder – a murderer and a victim. But that does not mean they are both guilty. However, with your statement upon leaving, you equate them both.
You were with us for 20 years, during which we did not just talk about cooperation but actively implemented it. All our governments were coalitions that included parties from the left. We were the only ones to offer the opposition a development partnership. We never excluded anyone.
Yet with this statement, you equate SDS with those who refused cooperation. With those who, during the pandemic, cycled in protests, burned and hanged our effigies, stole mandates, and called for our death. With those who, even in recent years, have persecuted and imprisoned us. In the 20 years of your membership in SDS, which exactly aligns with your uninterrupted service as an MP, dozens of your more prominent colleagues from the party were prosecuted, persecuted, tried, thrown out of their jobs, or harassed in numerous other ways under the guise of cleansing so-called Janšists. Some of us have spent hundreds of days in court and months in prison during these 20 years. Our parliamentary mandates came at a high cost. Can you even imagine the price our families have paid for them?
This all happened amid massive hypocrisy and complicity from the mainstream media. Even today, journalists outside the courthouse are more interested in Eva Irgl’s departure from SDS than in the political process and the attempt to disable the opposition through judicial abuse. Thank you, dear Eva, truly.
It is natural for paths in politics to diverge or converge. There are also dignified ways to handle this. You leave a party where you have spent 20 years as a professional politician without moralising. If you are an MP, you finish your mandate and either do not run again or run elsewhere. If you change your mind during the mandate, you return it and depart with dignity. We are elected in a proportional electoral system, where the votes of unelected fellow candidates are also needed for election. For your parliamentary seat, votes were contributed by 8 colleagues who ran in the 2nd electoral district. Upon leaving the party, the mandate is simply handed over to the next in line based on the results. Dignified and honourable. That is how people with integrity act.
Especially when they talk about respect and cooperation and about starting something new, something great.
Dear Eva, nothing great can be built on broken promises and dishonourable actions. Only a house on sand, which the first flood will wash away.
Best regards,
Janez Janša”