By: Sara Bertoncelj / Nova24tv
“I welcome anyone who believes in the values of our society: solidarity, equality, justice, and respect,” Tanja Fajon said at the SD party’s conference, adding that she does not judge or reject anyone in advance. Interestingly, it seems that she has forgotten about the agreement of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition, in which the left-wing parties of the current opposition agreed that they would not cooperate with the SDS party and those who support it under any circumstances. Therefore, it is safe to assume that she will forget about her pre-election promises just as quickly. “The programme that the SD party has presented shows that the negative selection in this party has reached its endpoint,” said Boštjan M. Turk, who is outraged at how these people, completely superficially and without any real preparation, decided to launch something they call an election programme to the public.
Last Saturday, a conference of the Social Democrats party (SD) took place in the Cankarjev dom congress centre, at which the party presented a draft of its visionary programme, written on 200 pages. One can tell from a quick glance that both words and numbers were more or less randomly strung on paper. The draft, entitled “A New Beginning,” is supposedly based on suggestions from people the SD party met on its “We Hear You” tour that lasted for a couple of months and is supposed to represent the party’s vision of Slovenia’s development in the next ten years. They announced that they are also planning to organise a public debate in the near future, in which the experts and civil society will also participate.
Raising the minimum wage to at least 800 euros net and the pensions to 700 euros. Shortening the work week to 32 hours while also increasing productivity and innovation. Making the companies greener and more international, for which an additional 700 million euros would be allocated. “With our excellent team of experts and businessmen, the Social Democrats are able to return economic development to Slovenia,” the SD president Tanja Fajon announced – and precisely at a time when Slovenian economy is actually finally getting better. The right to vote at age 16, kindergarten free of charge for all children, as well as school meals and school books. The construction of 10,000 public apartments – which was also promised by the Levica party (the Left) – and an additional 2,000 places in homes for the elderly and 5,000 additional places for residents of student homes. The Social Democrats would, in addition to all of the above, also shift freight transport from roads to railways. Did they even ask themselves whether any of this is profitable or at least realistic before writing the programme? Probably not.
There are many contradictions in the programme
“The programme that the SD party has presented shows that the negative selection in this party has reached its endpoint,” said Boštjan M. Turk, the Vice-Dean of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, adding that when reading their draft, one cannot help but think that this might be a preparation for the last autumn performance of the Moira Orfei circus. He added that substantive and formal inconsistencies or contradictions in the programme are very obvious. For example – the SD party is in favour of transferring freight traffic from roads to railways. The first obvious question here is – why did we build the motorways then? And logical thinking also quickly leads us to the realisation that Slovenia is too small to make freight transport by rail a better option than freight transport by road. Namely, rail freight pays off over long distances, for example, for freight that is loaded in Koper and then transported to northern Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, and so on. If the party actually fulfilled this promise, the transport of goods would become more expensive, which, of course, all of us – the consumers – would pay for.
The SD party is also in favour of building 10,000 public flats – if we assume that an average-sized family lives in each of these flats, this amounts to 40 or 50 thousand people, which is similar to the number of people in one Slovenian town. Cities were being built and expanded over centuries. How exactly would the SD party do all of this in one term and make sure that the entire infrastructure system is also in place is something that Turk cannot understand – he believes that this is more reminiscent of science fiction than an actual political programme.
A breakthrough to modernity is not possible for the worshipers of Kidrič
“The ratio between the minimum wage and the minimum pension cannot, by any logic, be only one hundred euros,” Turk also pointed out. If we look at the demographic structure of Slovenia alone, as well as the structure of Europe, this is practically impossible. And yet another contradiction – the SD party wants to shorten the work week and at the same time also increase productivity. “This is at odds with the laws of the most basic logic,” Turk said, who found the SD party’s programme to be somewhat similar to that of Martina Valenčič, who was a presidential candidate several times. However, Valenčič at least added photos to her programme, which might have persuaded some to cast their vote for her in the election.
But a vote for the SD party is a vote that does more harm than good because if these people come to power, the taxpayers will have to pay for their mistakes from our own pockets. “Slovenians should think long and hard about this, not only about the programme itself but also about how superficially and completely without preparation these people decided to launch something they call an election programme to the public,” Turk said.
“And besides, a breakthrough, modernity, and what the SD party is offering in its programme, cannot realistically be expected from people who bow down to the monument of Boris Kidrič, who is associated with the greatest crimes in Slovenian history, excluding the Turkish incursion,” Turk pointed out, concluding that the party had the opportunity to follow in Borut Pahor’s footsteps of being more moderate in its views, but decided against it. What will follow now is just a slow, dragged-out death of the party.