By: Gašper Blažič
Somewhere toward the end of the 1980s, I crossed the national border for the first time. It was actually a family shopping trip to Klagenfurt, of course with saved-up foreign currency. From the socialist paradise into the rotten capitalism (and back again).
Because the Yugoslav dinar at that time was practically a symbol of inflation and loss of value, parallel trading, for example in German marks, was entirely normal. Two to three times a year, we treated ourselves to a really big shopping spree at the then KGM in Klagenfurt. We kids were – in addition to Milka chocolates – particularly interested in audio-video equipment and especially in buying (blank) tapes, most often of the TDK brand, which we then used up at home like bananas (yes, we also bought those across the border).
Today, more than 30 years later, it is almost unimaginable to cross the border for basic goods. But we Slovenians had this issue of comparing our standard of living with others, and it was hard to accept that Western rotten capitalists were “overtaking us on the right”, even though we lived in the illusion that we were doing well. And that was perhaps the reason why we sent socialism to the scrapheap of history back then – but only partially – because we wanted to keep its perks, of course. And lo and behold, it was precisely this obvious difference between capitalist Austria and socialist Yugoslavia, of which we were a part, that actually led to a critical mass. People began paying attention to where taxpayers’ money was going, how much the military spent, how much we gave to the underdeveloped regions, to the Non-Aligned Movement, etc. And why, despite high taxes, we had such a low standard in healthcare, roads, and railways. This question actually influenced public sentiment far more than, say, the issue of human rights violations. Back then, it was said that only a minority was oppressed.
And maybe this is precisely the key to the question of when changes will occur in our country. As long as we had transitional-leftist governments in power, which “cooked us like frogs”, only a “minority”, the opposition, was always dissatisfied. The majority was not entirely happy but passively accepted the burdens and troubles. Now we are entering a period where this is changing, and even the majority is becoming dissatisfied. The transitional left has never before had such a strong majority in the National Assembly as it has since the last parliamentary elections. And not only that: oversight mechanisms, like the Constitutional Court, are completely subordinated to it. This gives the ruling authorities a false sense of reality and the belief that they can afford to do whatever comes to mind at any given moment. After raising public sector salaries, they could indeed buy social peace, but introducing new taxes – from property taxes to the one for dogs – combined with new electricity tariffs, creates an explosive mix. Socialists have always been known as lovers of other people’s wallets, but as long as they plucked money from others moderately, it somehow worked. Now, as they are breaking the psychological boundary of “cooking frogs”, they are massively creating new and new enemies – and among voters who were traditionally always on the side of the left.
But this is just the beginning of the changes. Given the clumsy PR, in which the most famous celebrity-political couple, RoberTina, tries to connect with the public and demonstrate their “closeness” to ordinary people, a spiral effect will emerge. This means that with every new move, the authorities will slide further into the abyss of foolishness, and every foolish act will provoke increasingly negative reactions among the people. Those who will play the most prominent role in this are precisely those who in April 2022 voted for Golob’s party, the Freedom Movement, and only later realised that they had ordered a “defective” product. Will they risk it again and make an even bigger mistake? Money is running out, and now (finally) wisdom is coming.