By: Dominik Štrakl
The central celebration marking the 35th birthday of our homeland offered a mirror in which two completely different Slovenias appeared on the same stage. The celebration should have been a moment of deep tribute to the country and to the generation which, thirty‑five years ago, stepped onto the path of independence without guarantees but with immense faith. Instead of dignity, we were given an ideological theatre of the deep state.
Milan Kučan proudly displayed the red star on his chest, a relic of a defeated system we escaped from, instead of the symbols of the country we were celebrating. The President of the Republic, meanwhile, used the stage for a cheap political attack on those who think differently, patronising citizens by scolding them that lower taxes supposedly are not meant for them. She was booed, and rightly so. Whoever lectures the nation from above should not be surprised when the people hold up a mirror.
This is a clear echo of Dolanc’s infamous statement: “Everyone must understand that we, the communists, are in power here; because if we were not, someone else would be, but that is not the case and never will be.” This virus of the transitional left activates itself every time Kučan’s clan loses power. Then, on command, the street army of NGOs awakens, led by Jenull, along with misused unions that sleep under a left‑wing government but instantly strike under a right‑wing one.
Yet on the same stage stood another Slovenia. The proud, state‑building one, looking forward and aware that we won our independent state ourselves, and that its only owner is not any party but the people who stopped waiting for permission. A Slovenia in which work, knowledge, and honesty will once again be valued, and which we will pass on to future generations in better shape than we received it. When we look at the young people who today proudly embrace the values of independence, it is clear that the red star is nothing more than a pale remnant of the past on the shirt of the first president, while this youth is our bright future. Slovenia belongs to us, not to them. And it will be as great as the courage that created it.