By: Dr. Janez Juhant
So, if citizens used to be worried about the fact that the media turned everything that this government did good as bad, we will all be worried now. The new authorities will be able to do good or bad, but the citizens will not know this because the media will cover it for us.
The election result and the post-election debates reflect the unregulated transitional state of democracy in Slovenia. Consideration also applies to the Catholic Church and Slovenian Catholics. I do not believe the commentator from Gorenjska region that after the morning mass Catholics voted for Svoboda party (en masse?), but Catholics are undoubtedly among the supporters of the leftist agenda, which reaches even into influential circles of the Church in Slovenia, which also raises questions how we made the transition.
Even the priest says that Janez Janša was in the Communist Party, but he obviously does not care that he has been fighting with great boldness for thirty years for a democratic Slovenian state, even now at the head of this government. (In Christianity, for example, the Apostle Paul counts a lot, who persecuted Christians before his conversion!) In the Communist Party, Janša did not have much influence, only that he resisted it and was expelled from it and then (twice) imprisoned. The same critics are not bothered by the fact that Milan Kučan (and other leading communists) only froze the Party’s booklet and constantly hindered the establishment of a democratic state from the background.
Communism as anti-religious and anti-church socialisation strengthens the negative image of Catholicism in the media
It is time to consider whether and to what extent a Catholic Slovene is still a Catholic in principle. This is also questioned elsewhere, where, as in our country, secularisation, i.e., a society without God is carrying out its destructive multiculturalist march on humanity. In Slovenia, the independence of religious Slovenes and citizens is further hampered by the organic and planned atheistic Christianisation of society. So-called self-governing communism as a lie still functions as anti-religious and anti-church communist socialisation. This strengthens the negative image of Catholicism in the media and ridicules the Catholic identity and the principled attitude of Democrats who do not accept these false statements. Many Catholics are still ashamed to show themselves Catholic in public, and most citizens do not think for themselves, do not make their own decisions, or resist this false construction of reality.
The school system and the media deliberately eliminate Christian topics, and there is too little discussion of these topics in families
The school system and the media deliberately – even violently – exclude Catholics and Democrats from society. The family idyll in which children socialise according to their parents in a Christian-Democratic way is also disappearing. Families rarely talk about the values of the Church’s faith, even less they strengthen their social beliefs based on Christian values, which are being overthrown by secular anti-church media planners addicted to the communist syndrome of separation of faith or the Church and society that still haunts Slovenia. Although politicians like to take pictures with popes and the media invite bishops to address Slovenes on holidays, God forbid that the religious should publicly oppose the deviance of political practice and disrespect for truth and social justice.
There are many wrongdoings within the Church, and many were fooled in the pursuit of the media against the Janša’s government
Unfortunately, there is still too much false humility within the Church, but also connections with the parastate, which at crucial moments influences support for undemocratic and anti-Christian patterns, mechanisms, and even values. The church media and preaching pay too little attention to these dilemmas, avoiding difficult social issues, including the promotion of people who work for the good of Slovenia and Catholics. Unfortunately, many people have fallen into the propaganda-cultural-militant chase of the media against this government and its Prime Minister. Probably not out of awareness that this government would not be doing the right thing, but more out of fear and tiredness of the anti-democratic media machine. We know this feeling, which takes over a person, instead of resisting evil, he tries to calm the conscience with rotten compromises. The reason, of course, is that we are not ready to fight the scattered evil of the half-past, because this requires determination and commitment from each of us.
Will we be sobered up by the announcement of the Gibanje Svoboda party that there will be a comprehensive silencing of those who think differently?
Lambert Ehrlich said during the war: “Who will resist if I withdraw,” when he was persuaded to withdraw from Slovenia. We probably did not talk enough about this rebellion against false mechanisms, we gave ourselves courage in public and organised ourselves accordingly. Given the elections and the development of events in the world, the current situation will force us to take a more decisive stand, like what the European Union did when Putin attacked Ukraine. The announcement of Svoboda party that all-round silence, oppression, and elimination of others will follow will sober us up. Are we paying enough attention to the words of the so-called liberals, who with their heads held high and without shame proclaim the exclusion of others!?
To preserve democracy at all levels, there is a determination to have such Svoboda (Freedom) in society and in the Church as an important part of it, if we do not want this Svoboda to become truly equal to that of 1945. In addition, it is also about organisation of Christian and remaining democratic civil society, which, despite right-wing spiritual movements and organisations, is not yet influentially comparable to cycling NGOs. So: we will have to be active if we want to maintain the democratic standards on which society and the Church can be based as an important part of it. The synodal process is also a great opportunity for the determination to go in this direction.
Svoboda in the name of freedom (for itself) intends to enforce a one-party conception of society that can mean violence
It is necessary to resist the processes according to which Svoboda intends to exclude not only SDS and NSi – i.e., the political opposition – from co-decision, but also to exclude right-wing voters – religious – from social participation, which means enforcing a one-party concept of society. In classical democracies, election winners promise post-election rule for all citizens. The potential Slovenian Prime Minister, who flew into the transition space like a meteor, predicts for the democratic constitution that he will remove not only all those who have worked politically so far, but even threatens the gains of democratic development, which should raise alarms. Therefore, there is no time to wait to see if and when this will happen, but we need a sober reflection and decisive action and the participation of all are necessary, that is, the determination of the civil initiative must be strengthened.
An integral part of these processes is objective and correct reporting on the situation in Slovenia. The envisaged Prime Minister announces the extradition of RTV Slovenia to its employees. What about the paying public, which has the right to be properly informed? According to analysts, the media and RTVS created an electoral victory. The inflated statements of the winners and their godparents in the National House herald the continued exclusion of others and the concealment of their own sideways. This degenerates even into violence by left-wing circles against colleagues who think differently.
What the new freedom was supposed to be was seen in the post-election Odmevi show and several times in Tarča show
So, what is this freedom that does not allow for difference, tramples on truth and allows forgery of facts? This critical independence is supposed to be, as the leader of Odmevi show after the elections, without any problems or critical questions fixed, how the new coalition will be formed. Tarča show also had an intangible interview with the expected Prime Minister, in which he spoke from afar about the moves he would make, all without Tarča’s critical questions about his alleged corrupt dealings in BiH or bank accounts abroad. Let’s compare this attitude of the host with her attitude towards Zdravko Počivalšek or Franc Kangler! Cynicism is also the inclusion of one of the main personnel of the transition, who even accuses the tax expert of politicking, while his mouth is full of non-political staffing, which is supposed to lead the new governments.
The media will help the new government transport thirsty citizens across the water
So, if the citizens used to be worried because the media turned everything that this government has done good as bad, we will all be worried now. The new authorities will be able to do good or bad, but the citizens will not know this because the media will cover it for us. In addition to the war and costliness, we will also experience all the transitional robberies at home, which will be gilded by this media propaganda. If citizens have so far been nervous about the negative portrayal of the government by the media, they will now help take them thirsty and calm across the water, which will be significantly felt in their pockets. So, there is no prospect of a rosy one-minded future; but it will have to be fought soberly and diligently, because I believe that most of them do not want it anymore.
Dr Janez Juhant is a professor emeritus at the Faculty of Theology in Ljubljana, and the author of a new book about Dr Lambert Ehrlich.