By: Dr Andreja Valič Zver
One often naively imagines that the leaders of countries – the political elite – are at least a bit wiser than those who elected them.
Why else would people vote for someone worse than themselves? Half in jest, half in earnest, history has shown far too often – not only in hereditary forms of rule – that individuals have risen to power who would not even be entrusted with running a newspaper kiosk, let alone a local community, a country, or international alliances. The Slovenian nation, already (too) severely tested by history, is a living witness and at the same time a victim of these historical truths. In just a few years, it has significantly fallen behind in every respect under the claws of a predatory ruling clique. It now lags behind Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic, and other countries that looked up to us at the turn of the millennium. In European and global politics, we have unfortunately become nothing more than a miniature poodle – one that no one asks for an opinion. Few people care what Slovenia wants, intends, or recommends. Our reputation and influence have been squandered by exactly the kind of “modern-day politicians” and “statesmen” I mentioned at the beginning.
And to make matters worse, the president of the country – who enjoys touting her legal expertise and moral judgment – has ensured yet another international debacle. Unfortunately, she is quite short-sighted in this regard. Let me use a domestic analogy: the house is filthy at home, but she is doing laundry in someone else’s. I am talking, of course, about the genocide – or rather politicide (the systemic and systematic destruction of political opponents) – that occurred on Slovenian soil after World War II. There was an immense amount of revolutionary violence, staged political trials, concentration and labour camps, violent confiscations of property, and other forms of the gravest human rights violations and abuses of fundamental freedoms.
But the president seems uninterested in a process of reconciliation, truth, justice, and memory. She forgets about half her fellow citizens and their family traumas, which sadly remain current traumas of the Slovenian nation. On the 80th anniversary of tragic events that cut deep into our national fabric and left still-unhealed wounds, the president chose to decorate the organisation of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (Zveza borcev NOB), which continues to shamelessly uphold the “achievements of the revolution.”
She followed up her May stampede with a petty political and unstatesmanlike posture in the European Parliament, where democratically elected MPs from EU member states work. Whatever one may think of this institution, it is made up of people who cannot just be shooed out of the plenary hall – their workplace – where she was invited as a guest. All Slovenian media that reported on standing ovations were blatantly lying. Only the far-left wing of the parliamentary chamber applauded – the same people who nod at every leftist absurdity and perversion. Just like in the Slovenian parliament, the left in the European one is vocal and relentless in invoking Marxist paradigms. What that brings, Europe has felt ever since the Bolshevik revolution in the Soviet Union – not to mention the Iron Curtain after World War II and its horrific consequences. That is why the left is rejected everywhere democratic values are upheld. The left may be loud and wildly applaud a woman who has voiced their darkest fantasies, but they cannot – except by force – deceive the democratic camp.
As for events in Palestine and the president’s “impulsive insight” in declaring it “genocide” (?!?), let me just say: watch the YouTube interview between the world-renowned intellectual Jordan Peterson and author Douglas Murray. The two leading conservatives clarify a lot. Much is already known, but the media machine still feeds us stories like “poor Palestinian children” and “Israeli monsters.” Truth is the first casualty of war, and Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other various terrorists know this all too well.
And finally, an incident that took place right after the president’s speech in the European Parliament: an official, originally from the Middle East, physically attacked a Swedish MEP who supports Israel! Every action, even a supposedly “impulsive insight,” can have unforeseeable consequences. A highly legally educated president should be aware of that! One cannot help but wonder if her act was not impulsive at all – but deeply calculated and coordinated… with whom, one can only guess.