By: Mitja Iršič
The rhetorical game of left-wing regimes around the world is the art of drawing new worlds that do not actually exist. When Yugoslav communists in 1983 went humbly begging Western capitalists for more US dollars so they could continue financing their socialist dystopia, they still claimed at home that Yugoslav self-management socialism was a beacon of light and an example of the path for the proletariat to free itself from imperial chains.
Even when Western capitalists lent them money only on the condition that they gradually introduce free-market reforms (a promise they even kept with the Marković government), they still insisted at home that they would not deviate from the path of workers’ self-management. In other words, they created a reality for domestic voters that did not exist. Similarly, even under Gorbachev, Soviet leaders adopted the same rhetoric, claiming that the Soviet model of communism was triumphing over the imperial-capitalist model of Western countries – even when they were secretly accepting humanitarian aid from Western countries, as this empire, which was allocating trillions of dollars for the development of military and space industries, ran out of food. The policy of drawing non-existent dimensions is therefore a kind of tradition stemming from the 1917 revolution. Let’s be honest – we can also include the Slovenian socialist and liberal, or “liberal”, political options in this.
Slovenia is in a severe economic downturn. Eurostat measured the largest drop in industrial production in the EU for December 2023 – Bojan Ivanc, the chief economist of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia (GZS), wrote that it was a “black December for the Slovenian industry”. The news did not improve after the new year. Eurostat measured the largest decrease in production volume across the entire EU for the previous month. The Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia recently published data showing a drastic decrease in industrial production both on a monthly and yearly basis. In March, Slovenia exported goods worth 5.1 billion euros, which is 2.1 percent less than in March last year. Imports decreased even more, by 6.7 percent, to just under 5.1 billion euros.
IT SEEMS, THEREFORE, THAT THE SLOVENIAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUES THE TRADITION OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA, FROM WHICH THEIR POLITICAL PREDECESSORS (SOMETIMES LITERALLY) EARNED THEIR DOCTORATES.
The cooling of the economy is very apparent, yet it seems that politicians are not even noticing it. Prime Minister Robert Golob, who appears to be on a permanent vacation in exotic locations, praised the success of the government to the newspaper Delo and even stated that Switzerland recognised a new Switzerland in us. Minister of Economy, Tourism, and Sports, Matjaž Han, while on an official visit to Switzerland, said he was pleased that Switzerland recognised Slovenia as an attractive investment destination for high-tech activities. We have not heard a single statement from the holiday-minded prime minister and the economy minister about the severe economic downturn, and of course, the media megaphones did not even bother them with such unpleasant questions.
It seems, therefore, that the Slovenian government continues the tradition of Soviet propaganda, from which their political predecessors (sometimes literally) earned their doctorates. They appear in public with very confident rhetoric about Slovenia as a success story, while negotiations have already begun on the European stage to prevent our economy from experiencing a similar implosion as under the Pahor trio between 2009 and 2011.
The biggest problem is that while images of smiling, satisfied, and wealthy Slovenes are being drawn, a socialist revolution is taking place behind the scenes under the leadership of the Levica party. The minimum wage is already far above the real ability of the economy. The income tax reform, which allowed us all to earn more until January 1st, has been annulled, and instead, they have further burdened wages with a solidarity supplement and by hanging additional health insurance premiums on them. They propose that every company with a turnover (not profit!) above one million euros should pay an additional “ad hoc” tax of 10,000 euros for the construction of non-profit housing.
While the authorities paint pictures of a “new Switzerland”, nobody is dealing with reality. Not the media, not the government, not its street-level NGO megaphones. Moreover, because they draw their starting points from their political fantasy that we are economically successful, they pursue a policy whose only modus operandi is how to further burden both individuals and the economy. The results are already here. It is a deadly spiral of media-political collusion that threatens to turn us into a new Greece, not a new Switzerland.