By: Sara Kovač / Nova24tv
“I am in favour of demilitarisation. Slovenia is not under military threat and does not need an army. These resources could be better spent where we are actually at risk: for healthcare, care for the elderly, housing and social security. However, despite demilitarisation, I would preserve the nuclei that can train citizens for a general popular resistance, if anything were to actually happen,” comrade Miha Kordiš, who would also become the Commander-in-Chief of the Slovenian Armed Forces if he were to win the upcoming presidential elections, said in an interview with the Siol media outlet.
“As the President of the Republic in the year 2022, I would have to take into account that we do have an army and that we are members of NATO. In the military field, my first priority would therefore be to bring members of the Slovenian army who are currently on missions abroad back home. Our soldiers are abroad because of foreign interests that have nothing to do with the defence of our citizens. However, the mandate of the Slovenian army is to protect the homeland. And Slovenia is not threatened by wars abroad but by hardships at home. We have to defend ourselves against the effects of climate change, for example. Just take a look at the current year. In the summer, we had to face fires, and in the last few weeks, we had to face floods,” the presidential candidate of the Left party (Levica), Miha Kordiš, said in an interview with the Siol media outlet.
In comrade Kordiš’s opinion, the post of Constitutional Court judge does not separate professionalism from a person’s worldview. In his words, to perform the function of a Constitutional Court judge, well, you must understand and know the world and society around you well. “Based on my experience in this country, I will say that the people with a far-right worldview do a worse job in the professional part of their mission. Just look at the charade with Igor Pirkovič and Uroš Urbanija at the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia, and also look at what is happening with the right-wing Constitutional Court judges. And don’t even get me started on the party loyalty that comes before everything else,” he said in his assessment that “right-wing” individuals are not fit to be constitutional judges. Of course, right-wing, in this case, pertains to all those who do not belong to the left and who do their jobs according to their conscience, as professionally as possible. Given that the President of the Republic appoints the Constitutional Court judges, we can imagine what kind of composition of the Constitutional Court we would have if Kordiš were to win the presidential race – no one would be writing those three dissenting opinions.
“Borut Pahor has remained silent throughout his mandate, but I will speak up. Every time there is a need to protect the people. I am not interested in the protocol but in the weight of the position of President of a country in public, with which one can point to the right priorities. So that we, as a society, can start to seriously address the climate meltdown, workers’ wages, the problems of housing and care for the elderly,” Kordiš explained how he would differ from the current President of the Republic, Borut Pahor. He also said that he would never act like Pahor, who paid tribute to the victims of Tito’s communists alongside the Italian President. “I would not have done that. That is a determined no. I would not go into the revision of history and the rehabilitation of fascism under the guise of reconciliation, which is what you are actually asking me. Not only in our country, but in Italy as well, the tradition of anti-fascism is strong, and only on this tradition can we build fraternity between peoples,” said the presidential candidate of the Left party, to whom Josip Broz Tito is closest among all presidents. And when it comes to the first President of the Republic that Slovenia had after it gained independence, Milan Kučan, Kordiš said that what he likes about him is that “in times of social crisis, when the far right is gaining power in our society again, he is not staying silent,” – even though he is retired, the candidate told the 24ur media outlet.
“The war in Ukraine is not actually a war between Russia and Ukraine, but between Putin’s militarism and Western imperialism. Ukraine has the misfortune that it found itself in between the two ideas,” Kordiš also told Siol. He was also once again critical of entrepreneur Ivo Boscarol, who, according to Kordiš, uses his wealth to buy himself the public image of a saint, through which he then lobbies, opposes fair taxation of the rich and the capital, advocates for private schools and calls on people to defend the rich from fair taxes with pitchforks and axes. “I also see a problem in making social solidarity depend on the will of a few. We can read very nice things about Mr Boscarol in the media – for example, how he is now financing the building of a health centre out of his own pocket. But if we had fair taxes from the start, the health centre in question would have been built a long time ago,” Kordiš explained.