By: Gašper Blažič
The title probably made you think of a well-known American (low budget) movie hit, which also conquered audiences around the world in terms of music. But the current Slovenian reality has little to do with movie romance. In fact, I have the feeling that we have found ourselves in the middle of a Slovenian political horror film, where scenes are predicted that we hoped would never happen again in the future.
Yesterday, a group of civil society organisations marked the Memorial Day for the victims of communism in Slovenia with a memorial ceremony in the evening hours in the centre of Ljubljana. A memorial day that actually no longer exists – at the same time, Golob’s government adopted a resolution at a correspondence session to abolish the memorial day. And probably, with the same argumentation, the decision to abolish the memory of the victims of totalitarianism on August 23rd will probably follow. So, under the pretext of looking to the future, the extremists in power are carrying out a cultural revolution and retouching the past. Which, like RTV and the Constitutional Court, wants to “depoliticise” it – if you believe it.
But did such a move surprise us? Maybe only the most naïve ones who still claim that our democracy works perfectly. Yes, that version of (people’s) “democracy” from Čebin really works perfectly, we can agree on that.
I will not go into the details of the decision that resulted in a symbolic repetition of the communist massacre. A lot has already been said about this by others. But what is most perverse is the excuse that the government is liberating Slovenia from ideological oppression. As if anyone was harmed by declaring a memorial day. If, of course, we ignore the completely understandable moral damage of those who justify communist crimes because they benefit from it in one way or another.
But apparently the government also needed it for some other purpose. It was necessary to raise a smoke screen because of some other decision that will hit the pocket hard. At the behest of the government, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia has already issued more than thirty thousand decisions ordering individuals to return the financial aid they received during the epidemic. Well, in a little while, medical employees will also be sent claims for the return of the allowances they received during the epidemic. Of course, there will be no protest rallies, because the state only demands what is its own, right?
I am not surprised by this move either. In fact, we warned about this possibility in the weekly Demokracija before the elections last year. However, we received answers saying that this cannot be true, since Golob also promised that there would be no such moves. But it happened. People are dancing for joy, because they will be able to thin their already overweight wallets even more with the otherwise expensive price. But maybe Golob thinks that only “Janšists” received such help? But I just do not believe that. I believe there will be more gnashing of teeth in the coming months among those who generously supported the “libertarian” party on April 24th, 2022. It is just the case that a person only sobers up when the authorities “send” him for his wallet.
In short, the ruling elite’s dance with the people is becoming more and more dirty. “Just speedily, speedily make your feet haste!”, our greatest poet would have written on this occasion. Let’s just hope that the water man (Golob) will not drag the whole of Slovenia behind him – and not only (blonde) Urška… Only organised and, above all, determined civil resistance can prevent this.
