By: Dr Stane Granda
The election results, although not final, are known. Even if there is some change and SDS ends up first, it does not change the essence. It only means that someone else becomes the owner of a Pyrrhic victory. The fact is that the election has been lost, even though by the logic of circumstances it should not have been. Just as, by the same logic, there never should have been a government led by Dr Robert Golob. And yet both things happened.
The first analyses of the election indicate that those who voted for Golob were people over 65 and more women than men. The latter cannot be explained by the fact that they always advocate for Palestinians, including and especially for their children, while forgetting the poor Palestinian women, and especially Iranian women, but rather by a kind of female realism, known to us in the slightly adapted proverb: “Better a pigeon in the hand than a turkey on the roof!” The fact is that life is becoming harder every day, that everyday shopping is more expensive every day. Inflation is here. Shortages may follow. Ahead of us are fear and uncertainty, which lead to irrationality. God help you if you are ill or need assistance. “You are done for!” as Franc from Maribor would say.
“And yet both things happened!” The elections revealed the moral collapse of the generation that experienced independence in the best years of their lives. Much was expected of them, and they were prepared to sacrifice a great deal for it. And what did they get? In the 35 years of the independent Slovenian state, the political option that identified itself with independence has governed for less than a quarter of that time. In power are those for whom it “was never an intimate option.” Slovenians should not be idealised, but even students in Serbian cities resist the kind of Balkanisation seen in Slovenia. The “paradise under Triglav” is becoming a Belgrade pashalik that would embarrass even the Turks. Theft and corruption are so strong, present, and widespread that it will take several decades to overcome them. We are condemned to them in the final years of our lives! If we add to this the power of the Kavač and other drug clans, the Roma violence in Dolenjska, which has become latent under this government, the functioning of the police and judiciary, and now also VOS – the Security‑Intelligence Service of Nika Kovač, which apparently has the state’s security structures subordinated to it – “sir, sir, who could endure” such conditions? The older generation has broken morally and existentially. The fact that Janković and Kučan, theft and corruption, indeed the entire financial oligarchy represented by the president of the country, have received political cover is the greatest catastrophe of these elections! Out of uncertainty and fear of the future, the existing tragic conditions have been legalised. The fact is, and Slovenia is the crown proof, that the bottom has no bottom. Old age and despair have crushed optimism and deepened the tragedy.
“And yet both things happened!” It would be tragic, even fatal for the future, if we failed to see reality. It is unserious to look for blame elsewhere. Our own intelligence gives us the strength to face the situation and respond to it. There were too many irresponsible statements about raising pensions and too many obvious pre‑election sweets. The money you have in your pocket, not in the future, is the true ruler. People should have been systematically told that they deserve more, that they were robbed, cheated. And this in a completely indisputable way, not in a manner that creates doubt among people. The reflex of ZUJF is frighteningly strong and should not be underestimated. The ZUJF‑generation faces the reality of pensions in an especially tragic way.
But there is an exceptionally bright point that outweighs the unexpected election result. The share of young people who voted for SDS is surprising given the current school system. They have practically heard nothing about independence, nothing about the values of democracy, they do not know Slovenian history, and yet they saw through it. Slovenia will not collapse yet! It would truly be a betrayal if we did not fill in their lack of knowledge about the circumstances of independence in a way appropriate and acceptable to them. This is the political dynamite of Slovenia’s future. A resurrection! The election result tells us that Slovenia must launch a mass movement against corruption, lies, and theft. These are the reasons young people have no housing and a bleak future. Their fate lies in their own hands.