By: Dr. Metod Berlec
Last Wednesday, the sight of the protesters who filled the Republic Square in Ljubljana at the initiative of the popular initiative Voice of the People was magnificent. With Slovenian flags in their hands and folk music playing, people who worked hard for decades both in the former and the present country demanded decent pensions worthy of a human being.
In the speeches to the gathered crowd, it was heard that the current generation of pensioners is the one who in the previous country, during Yugoslavian socialism, waited in lines for gasoline and building materials, and the one who protested on Roška Street in Ljubljana against the fact that Slovenian citizens are tried in Serbo-Croatian. They emphasised that this is the generation that has the most credit for Slovenia’s independence, so they are now demanding a decent life, because pensions are not social assistance, but a right. They also told the government that enough is enough of making fun of them and that they want a decent life and respect. Many wrote their demands to the government on banners. Among other things, there were signs: “We demand decent pensions”, “Government, do not play with us, we are still going strong pensioners”, “Help us live, do not help us die”, “Judges €600, and pensioners euthanasia”, “No to euthanasia for pensioners, but euthanasia for Golobism”, “We want well-deserved pensions, we created this country, the fruits of which you are all enjoying now” …. The protesters, under the leadership of Pavle Rupar, assured that they will gather every first of the month at Republic Square in the capital until the authorities hear them and take them into account and admit that they deserve decent pensions.
The protest was completely different from the politically motivated protests during the previous Janša’s government, when mostly members of the younger and middle generation from the capital, who grew up with their privileged socialist (or even tycoon) parents, protested. The people who raged against the centre-right government were mainly ideologically burdened people from the public sector, FDV students, various losers who have never worked hard in their lives, and people who have been doing syndicalism, activism, quasi-culturalism, and parasitism at the public manger for years at the expense of Slovenian taxpayers. The protesters were mainly the grandchildren of the “new class”, which Milovan Đilas wrote about in 1957 in his book New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System. In the book, he pointed out how party-state officials form a class that “uses, enjoys, and disposes of nationalised property”. Something similar is being done today by left-wing privatisers who took advantage of social assets during the transition from the previous to the current social system. So, during the transition period. Of course, there were also representatives of the previous totalitarian government with the last boss of the party, Milan Kučan, at those protests. The latter encouraged protests and even addressed the protesters led by Jaša Jenull, Teja Jarc, and others in front of the Revolution Monument several times. They, as the “Voice of the People”, brought Robert Golob and his Gibanje Svoboda party to power with the help of the dominant media.
Now, week by week, it appears that the programme “as long as it is not Janša” is not working. We have a government in power that is full of ideological revanchism, the madness of cultural Marxism, empty showmanship, and it is severely lacking in serious competences for governing. That is why we are now witnessing coalition meetings in Brdo pri Kranju. In the second half of January, they discussed the “healthcare reform”, and last week they started the “debate on the reform of the wage system and housing policy”. But what is the profit? Although they have been in power for eight months, they have only now begun to familiarise themselves with the situation in individual areas, make analyses and prepare timelines. They do not know what kind of reforms they should carry out, so they are establishing various “strategic councils” that are supposed to come up with the content of the “reforms”, while postponing all the “reforms” to the following years, when the question is whether they will still be in power. A stark example was Prime Minister Robert Golob’s promise that until the salary reform, all judges and prosecutors would receive a monthly allowance of 600 euros. The proposal for this was submitted to the National Assembly following an urgent procedure, but the Legislative Legal Service tore it up because it was unconstitutional, which forced the ruling coalition to withdraw it. Golob himself and his government thus showed complete incompetence, amateurism, …