By Dr. Stane Granda
The recent national holidays plunged me into a depression of civic feeling again. Not because of the Prime Minister’s speech, not even because of the behaviour of the President of the National Assembly, even less because of the replacement of the throne of the country, which could not be prevented anyway…
It literally makes me sick when I see what kind of people, we, the citizens, entrusted with the leadership of the country, which is the greatest achievement of Slovenians in history. I remember what happened in the historic days between 1985 and 1991 and our expectations at that time. I remember the days during the war for Slovenia, when we put our lives on the altar of our homeland. Fortunately, they conducted the war so successfully that our sacrifices were not necessary. Where are all our expectations now? In a pork trough? No, in the sewers, where rats reign, controlled and directed by those against whom the war for Slovenia was fought and everything that led to it.
These days, Janez Zemljarič was buried with the highest state honours. I do not envy him. I also do not wish him death. I do not know about him for his leadership of the “Slovenian government”, the construction of the Clinical Centre of Ljubljana, the construction of Cankar Hall, and Maček villa, the extension of the National Gallery… His name reminds me of the unfortunate Bulgarian and the trembling stories of former Udba members who were endlessly afraid of him… I remember a lot more. Also, about how he chopped and burned all the firewood for the neighbouring pastor at Primskovo. I do not hate him because of the ideology he belonged to and the job he did. I am surprised that the relevant authorities were never interested in how he became one of the richest Slovenians. He was at the very top of those who had the greatest influence in the national economy in Slovenia. Let’s just remember the complications surrounding the land of the former Delamaris! I am shocked because my Slovenia identifies with him as a person and with an era that has merits for a sovereign and internationally independent Slovenia. He was Slovenia’s opposite incarnate! His attitude towards democracy was even worse. Let’s remember his interrogation of Kocbek when he threatened him with arrest! And then one of his “comrades” misuses Kocbek’s name for an obituary. Unprecedented perversity! Insulting even for the channelling of public and political life in Slovenia.
As everything shows, my, and not only mine, experience of Slovenia as a democratic homeland is a utopia. Slovenia is not what we imagine, but a country of “formers”. All democracy, like elections and the like, is entertainment for the public and abroad. In fact, we are ruled by the successors of the Maček clan: Kučan in the field of government bodies and Zemljarič (so far) in the field of economy. These are the true rulers of Slovenia. That is why the former first hard rock of Slovenia also has a state funeral. It is known that no infrastructural construction could start without his consent, no business could start without his consent, as evidenced by the medical purchases, no business could start… People can get upset, stand in lines for a doctor… Zemljarič’s caravan moves on. Therefore: after Zemljarič, Zemljarič.
Do not speak ill of the dead, says an old proverb. A man dies, and the state funeral is not the result of his human greatness, but of the functions he held and the policies he pursued. These were the most sinister under communism: internal affairs and the secret political police. Regardless of Zemljarič’s involvement in some of the crimes of the services he led, we most resolutely reject the worship of this activity that the current government indulges in. It is not about a person, it is about morality, fundamental moral principles, which are the first condition of minimal civilisation and democracy. We can now see that the support for Putin
in the European Parliament, which was shown to him by the Slovenian left, was not a slip, but a deeply thought-out act. It is guided by the logic of the rejection of the European declaration on the crimes of totalitarianism, the rejection of responsibility for mass post-war massacres and, last but not least, the attitude towards the Museum of Slovenian Independence, which is a thorn in their side as a break with communism. For this reason, and only for this reason, they want to incorporate it into the museum of modern history, in order to show independence as an event similar to the one when the Slovenes from Gorica invaded Gorica on August 13th, 1950, to collect brooms, and not as a key event of our past.
At the time of independence, there was no lustration due to the interests of its protection. Individuals were pardoned not only for crimes against basic human rights, but also for cold-blooded individual or mass murders. This, more than anything else, is demonstrated by the attitude towards Zdenka Kidrič, whom the independence fighters were not even allowed to touch. In fact, this was made possible through “Kučan’s satellites”, which were already included in her process at the very top of the independence process. What they did not publicly dare to do, leftist governments did indirectly, which covered it with the garb of anti-Janša. No government has ever done anything as directly as Kučan is doing now, who is said to have ordered a state funeral for Zemljarič through his security guard. They literally make fun of the democratic side of independence. They are humiliating it, insulting it, and above all, as the attitude towards the idea of the Museum of Slovenian Independence shows, they are destroying it. Slovenia’s national drive for independence is dead, democracy is a dream. Fortunately, also Golob’s second mandate