By: Dr Metod Berlec
We have just come through holidays marked by their unmistakable socialist‑realist iconography and misleading rhetoric, as if we had stepped back into the former totalitarian regime.
Once again, the so‑called Liberation Front of the Slovenian Nation was celebrated, even though it is a party‑mythical construct, since on 27 April 1941 there was no significant meeting at all. Instead, the day before, in Rožna dolina in Ljubljana, several members of the Society of Friends of the Soviet Union met and founded a kind of “anti‑imperialist front”. In other words, on 26 April 1941 – the very day when the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler paid a ceremonial visit to Maribor. Importantly, this was a “front” directed against the Western Allies. Let us recall: at that time, communists and National Socialists were allies under the Hitler–Stalin Pact of August 1939. And they remained so until Germany attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Only years after the Second World War did they revisit this date and gradually turn it into an official holiday, in order to conceal their earlier collaboration with Hitler’s Nazis. After independence, the holiday was renamed from Liberation Front Day to Resistance Day.
We are now witnessing the expected reversal and pretence. During the May Day holidays (and the days leading up to them), we saw the awakening of the red trade‑union leaders who had previously cheerfully supported Golob’s left‑wing government and showed no concern that their demands for enormous public‑sector pay rises were digging a hole in public finances. After the election, when the so‑called centrist trio presented an emergency development bill and the first signs appeared that a centre‑right government might emerge, they suddenly, overnight, became worried about the rapidly growing budget deficit. At the traditional May Day Eve event on Rožnik, representatives of the left‑wing regime‑aligned unions were already “announcing the defence of workers’ rights and the welfare state”. Even before that, they, like the newly forming left‑wing opposition, were upset by the new draft Government Act.
At an extraordinary session of the National Assembly last Wednesday, MPs approved the amendment to the Government Act with 49 votes in favour and four against. The amendment, proposed by SDS, reduces the number of ministers from the current 20 to 15. It was supported by MPs from SDS, NSi, SLS, Fokus, Demokrati, Resni.ca, and the representatives of the national minorities. SDS president Janez Janša stated clearly in an interview for Planet TV that SDS would form a government only if it were strong enough and had a clear majority. He advocated broader cooperation in the National Assembly on key reforms, similar to the past “Partnership for Development”. In forming the government, Janša announced, in line with the new Government Act, a reduction in the number of ministries, the abolition of the Ministry for Digitalisation and the Ministry for a Solidarity‑Based Future, and the merging of portfolios, aiming for a more rational and efficient structure. The key priorities of the new centre‑right development‑oriented government would be demographics, decentralisation of the state, and the stability of public finances and healthcare. But achieving this will require considerable coalition coordination…
