By: Dr Andrej Umek
Until recently, I would have answered the question posed in the title of this column with a clear no. Until recently, I was convinced that since the democratisation and independence of the Republic of Slovenia, we have also been committed to the EU’s established values of respect for human rights, democracy, and freedom, and that we are an integral part of democratic Europe.
That is why the amendment to the Law on Public Order and Peace, which was submitted a few days ago by the ruling coalition, was a great shock to me. To be completely clear, not because the purpose of the amendment is to more strictly punish the use of Nazi and fascist symbols, but because it creates a distinction between the three European totalitarianisms. This differentiation is in clear contradiction to the view established in democratic Europe on the equivalence of all three totalitarianisms – fascism, nazism, and communism, which is clearly stated in the Resolution on European Conscience and Totalitarianism, adopted by the European Parliament on March 25th, 2009, with a dominant majority of 553 votes in favour, 44 against, and 33 abstentions. I wonder if the government of Robert Golob and the coalition that supports it are leading us out of the EU, a “Slovexit”, and if this amendment is just the first step on that path.
I do not intend to hide from the esteemed readers of this column that I am very sensitive to the equivalence of all three totalitarianisms. This is simply due to what my family and I experienced under all three totalitarianisms. My parents were terrorised by the Nazis even before I was born in the winter of 1934-1935. The reason was probably that they participated in a network that helped refugees from the Third Reich to the West. After the defeat of Yugoslavia in World War II, the Nazis confiscated all those parts of my father’s construction company that were on their occupied territory. And that was the vast majority. My grandparents were deported to Germany, from where my grandfather never returned. The Italian occupier forbade my parents from any professional activity. After the so-called liberation, not much changed for me and my family. Only the name of the totalitarianism was different. We remained enemies of the regime, and they took what the first two totalitarianisms had left behind. The curse of not having moral and political qualities ended for me only with the first free elections in 1990. Therefore, I have no reason to make any distinction between the three European totalitarianisms.
I PUBLICLY CALL ON THE PROPONENTS OF THE AMENDMENT TO OPENLY STATE WHAT THEY WANT. ADOPTING THE AMENDMENT IN ITS CURRENT FORM MEANS A DE FACTO EXIT FROM THE EU AND A RETURN TO TITOIST SLOVENIA, POVERTY, AND TYRANNY.
Amid all the harassment and discrimination, I experienced under the communist regime, a new hope was born. Europe began to emerge, based on human rights, democracy, and cooperation. It grew slowly, deepened, and strengthened from the modest beginnings of the Coal and Steel Community through the European Economic Community to the European Union. For all of us who participated in the formation of Demos and its work, the goals were clear: a democratic and sovereign Slovenia, a member of the European Union. When these goals were achieved, culminating in EU membership in 2004, I never imagined that proposals that undermine this democracy would appear in the National Assembly, which is supposed to be the guarantor of Slovenian decoration. And yet, this has happened with the amendment to the Law on Public Order and Peace.
In conclusion, let me be clear; all European democrats are aware that only equidistance to all three totalitarianisms is the guarantor of the democratic development of Europe. And this rule should not be violated in any of its member states. The proposed amendment to the Law on Public Order and Peace represents a clear violation of equidistance to all three totalitarianisms and thus a clear departure from the basic principles on which our and European democracy is based. Therefore, I publicly call on the proponents of the amendment to openly state what they want. Adopting the amendment in its current form means a de facto exit from the EU and a return to Titoist Slovenia, poverty, and tyranny. Only a change to the amendment that ensures equidistance to all three totalitarianisms will fully preserve Slovenia as part of democratic Europe.