By: Dr Stane Granda
The situation in Slovenia is schizophrenic. It is as if we are in a civil war. The government has taken on reforms that can only be resolved over a longer period and with the broadest possible consensus of the citizens. Since most politicians lack experience and knowledge, willpower alone is not enough – especially because good intentions alone lead only to hell – they try to mask their impotence and ignorance through conflicts with the opposition, which is blamed for everything. But it is not just about blame; it is about sin. It was the opposition that carried out independence and abolished totalitarianism. That is why the anniversary of the first democratic elections was not even allowed to be mentioned, let alone celebrated.
This would not align with the fundamental mission of the ruling coalition: the cleansing of Janšism. They never precisely defined what that means. Unless it refers to the management of the COVID pandemic, more or less mandatory vaccination and restrictions, which the rest of the world acknowledges as exemplary – while here, all that is labelled as dictatorship and gassing, with shameless allusions to the cremation of Jews in the Holocaust. Such public accusations can be heard and read. They are the result of a sick spirit, of theories of anti-democratic and anti-socialist conspiracy. If one looks more soberly, maybe some elements of conspiracy can indeed be found – in members of former communist party families, whose descendants, now reaching maturity, are suddenly discovering that their parents’ privileges are gone, that they must work and earn a living on their own. Since they were not raised to work, they seek detours in quasi-culture, quasi-art, and quasi-civil society. That is why the primary task of government policy is not the urgently needed reforms, but the cleansing of Janšism – a return of their parents’ privileges.
The essence of Janšism – a term coined by the Murgle oligarchy – is not the reversal of independence, since they benefit most from it, even though it was not their ‘intimate option’. And Kučan gets the highest pension. May God bless him with it, as he will not take it to the afterlife. That is why they appointed a special lady to the government cabinet, whose first concern was to abolish the Museum of Slovenian Independence and everything that reminds of it. Including, and especially, the abolition of the Memorial Day for the Victims of All Totalitarian Regimes. So that people would not accidentally remember theirs. They will not allow the burial of the genocidally killed Roma or the victims of communism massacred in Kočevje. Once she accomplished that, they cast her out. Now she tends to the ‘Our Tito’ inscription on Sabotin and stirs the mud around the European Capital of Culture – not as a bluff, but to ensure people learn nothing about fascist crimes against the Gorizia Slovenes. The name Lojze Bratuž is forbidden to speak. They only allow discussion about why Mussolini is still an honorary citizen of Gorizia. While we honour pathological murderers – by all normal criteria, criminals – as national heroes! Participants and supporters of the war for Slovenian independence are just waiting for the day we will have to wear some badge on our clothes, so we will be visible from afar. They are already imitating this in Maribor. In one of the local high schools, not even a single hour has been devoted to Slovenian independence, but an entire day to the ‘erased’. This is truly a swamp of mud, but why must the greatest achievement of the Slovene people first be completely dragged through it?
If, in the name of fighting for the Palestinians, they are turning us into Palestinians – since we are being driven out of society – they are deepening the societal rift with their sympathetic stance toward Russia and their slandering of Ukraine. The victim becomes the criminal, the aggressor a saint. They deny Russia’s ties with Hitler, their joint occupations, the destruction of the Baltic states, the invasion of Finland… the Holodomor, and especially the Katyn massacre. They claim it did not happen. They were just dancing the kazachok and drinking vodka there.
In Slovenia, regarding Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, a pro-Russian fifth column is emerging. You cannot escape the fifth column anywhere. If cynic Danilo Türk is not tormenting you on TV, then the barber is bothering you.
Democracy demands tolerance for opposing views, and humanism for the spiritually and physically ill. But what if – and when – it becomes necessary to defend the Slovenian state? Will it be done by those for whom it was never their ‘intimate option’? Will they go to Serbia with Janković? Maybe then Slovenia will become the next Switzerland!