By: Jože Biščak
Some might think that Slovenian leftists are the ones learning from their foreign ideological allies how to disable their political opponents. But a brief look at developments in this millennium shows quite the opposite: that it is, in fact, the Slovenian left – which, due to the lack of a proper lustration process, hijacked the state and its subsystems – that has shown progressives around the world how to first demonise and then, by abusing the judiciary, police, and prosecution, take down their conservative political rivals.
Remember the Patria affair, in which the left, through a fabricated scandal involving Janez Janša (and consequently the SDS party), and later through legal proceedings, obstructed normal and unburdened participation in three parliamentary election cycles. The same method has been used – with varying degrees of success – against Donald Trump (USA), Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Marine Le Pen (France), Călin Georgescu (Romania), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), Sebastian Kurz (Austria), and others. But the similarities do not end there.
Just look at the latest German scandal, in which the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) labelled the patriotic party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a “proven right-wing extremist organisation.” The purpose of this label was to trigger procedures that could ban what is currently Germany’s most popular party, while also allowing law enforcement at the federal level to monitor and secretly survey its members. Just a few days later, the label was retracted: the domestic intelligence agency announced that it would no longer claim AfD has extremist right-wing tendencies until the relevant administrative court makes a ruling. With this, the Cologne court indirectly acknowledged that, despite an investigation that allegedly lasted more than three years, it evidently cannot present sufficient reliable evidence to maintain the accusation of anti-democratic tendencies against AfD. The evidence was truly far-fetched – based on statements such as claims that migration represents a replacement of the native population, that remigration of illegal migrants will be necessary, and even concern and outrage over increasing knife attacks were labelled as extremism.
Despite the retraction, the damage was already done. Some local and regional politicians from CDU (EPP), CSU (EPP), and SPD (S&D) quickly announced they would begin investigating AfD members working in public administration, particularly the police. Even a teachers’ association joined in, claiming that AfD members should not be allowed to teach youth, as they could “infect” them with patriotism. This amounts to an attack on the German constitution.
The method and timing of this “scandal’s” release to the public are uncannily similar to the affair known in Slovenia as the CPC case. Around fifteen years ago, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) – led by Goran Klemenčič and Rok Praprotnik – published a report on the assets of political party leaders. Although it also implicated the then-president of Positive Slovenia, Zoran Janković, it was abundantly clear who the real target was: Janez Janša. His main “offense” (to simplify) was that he sold a property in Trenta over a decade after purchasing it – for a higher price. This was followed by a planned media lynching and demands for the resignation of Janša’s second government. Just like in the German case, selected leftist (allegedly centrist) politicians were informed in advance about the report – including then-leader of the Civic List, Gregor Virant, who was the first to stab the centre-right government in the back (hence the Slovenian expression “virantovanje”). Two years later, in 2015, the Supreme Court annulled the CPC report due to violations of Janša’s constitutional rights, but the consequences of the political construct remained – Janša was prosecuted in the Trenta case.
All these examples clearly show how cowardly and malicious the left operates, and that foreign progressives are loyal students of the Slovenian left. A new, more refined tactic by the left has also emerged: they no longer take one step back to take two forward, but instead take two steps forward first, then one step back. The effect is the same.
