By: Jože Biščak
Be careful when Slovenian leftists speak and the hegemonic media report on Eritrea. This is usually associated with hunger and poverty or helpless immigrants seeking a better life on the old continent. As a totalitarian African state in which political organisation is allowed only by the Marxist-Leninist Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, it is rarely mentioned, even very shyly. It is similar with Cuba, Russia or Belarus. The problem with leftists is not that they are, by definition, totalitarian states; these have been for a long time or from time immemorial. For them, the problem is poverty, hunger, Western interference and the families of oligarchs there, not the fact that communists rule. They overlook or deliberately forget that it is Marxist ideology that has caused all this and is bringing evil to the people. But this is logical for such types of people: they have always liked socialism, this is an ideal that Slovenia must also strive for.
Slovenia was already socialist within Yugoslavia, ruled by a single party – the Communist Party. The consequences of half a century of revolutionary terror with the systematic violation of human freedoms are still being felt today. Not only did the communists kill and sweep the flower of Slovene entrepreneurship and the intellectual elite into the caves after the war, they subjugated (sub)systems and still control them today. Right wing or center-right governments have been in power for too little time to carry out much needed reforms in education, the judiciary, and health care. The latter showed all the disadvantages during the epidemic.
Although Slovenia spends around nine percent of GDP on health care, which places it in the golden mean of the EU, public health care is on the verge of collapse. This is a direct consequence of corruption in the public procurement system, and especially the remnants of the socialist mentality in the system of (solidarity and progressive) health insurance (monopoly over compulsory insurance in the image of ZZZS) and the persecution of private individuals. Make no mistake. We have excellent doctors, nurses who are excellent, self-sacrificing and dedicated, we just need radical reform and capable management.
Slovenia would be taken back
The current government is trying to do something in all areas, but the left elite is mobilising everything that lies and goes in order to sabotage. Also at the expense of human health. Even more. The left wing opposition quartet, united in KUL, clearly stated in the agreement on post-election cooperation that Slovenia would be taken back. Where back is clear: into the stinking swamps of ruling first-class and incompetent. Even otherwise, the agreement (in the event of major problems with Slovene) contains only one endless lump sum promise (without concrete content) and a commitment to the future, although each party will go to the polls separately and with its own programme. Well, understand who can. Igor Završnik from Nova24TV wrote that when reading the agreement, he had the impression “that it was written by sixth grade students in the first conference”. I would just like to remind my colleague and friend Igor not to overestimate the intellectual reach of Šarec, Bratušek, Mesec and Fajon, because sixth-graders may resent him.
It is clear that they put quite a few things on paper and then signed it theatrically on the Republic Square. It is clear that they are aware of their incompetence and that in such high positions as the center-right government operates, they will never be able to do it on their own. Above all, it is clear that leftists are not bothered by the government itself, but by a global (conservative) view represented by at least two sides in the government coalition. And they will not give peace, but will encourage chaos and violence in the streets until they reach their own. This has also been made clear several times: as long as right-wingers are on the Gregoričič street, the left-wingers will send their supporters and activists to the streets. Even through corpses.
Leftists, that is enough!
Slovenian history has already defeated individual men who needed and were able to withstand the pressures of threats and staged protests. Slovenia is not made up of people who block the motorway in the middle of the working day and in front of everyone, nor with people who cycle like a hamster spins a reel. Slovenia is made up of car mechanics, engineers, tradeswomen, nurses, gardeners, farmers and tens of thousands of others who work hard at a time when the unemployed are breaking down the streets at the expense of taxpayers. They are a calm and quiet majority, for whom I hope will get up on election day next year, go to the polls and say, “Leftists, that is enough!”
Jože Biščak is the editor-in-chief of the weekly Demokracija, a long-term investigative journalist, and since 2020 also the president of the Slovenian Association of Patriotic Journalists and the author of three books.
