By: Domen Mezeg / Nova24tv
In Slovenia, we are witnessing the ease of slandering with “fascism”. Professor of FDV Stanković recently compared folk music to “fascistoidness” for Val 202. Miheljak came to his aid through a column in Mladina. Such labelling, of symbols associated with the nation and the homeland, is certainly not accidental, much less justified. In the background, there is usually a struggle to preserve the old social climate, and consequently privileges and positions. What is even more frightening, they herald an uncompromising struggle against the democratic forces. Professor Borut Rončević told Miheljak the following: “In the column, Miheljak listed by name some of those that will have to be faced uncompromisingly… Radical leftists are becoming more and more obsessed.”
President Borut Pahor recently pointed out the lightness of the abuse of the word “fascism”: “This insult, which has become kind of quite commonplace, especially with fascism, with things that have been horrible in our history and our parents and grandparents have horrible memories with that. By doing this,… we seem to be serving ourselves in discussions without being aware of what we are actually saying.” It seems that the criticism is more than intended for FDV professor Dr Peter Stanković, who stated the following for Val 202: “There is nothing wrong with traditional companies. However, traditional values in a modern context can be problematic for a variety of reasons. People who listen to this music live in this world and think in a very uniform way: one value, one nation – at some point they will only need one more leader, and we will be where we do not want to be.
We can see that politics with more autocratic tendencies appropriates, supports, uses, and exploits this music, not only in Slovenia. I do not want to say that this music is autocratic, fascistic, but with its simple, unambiguous, uniform world, it is very ready for such appropriations.” In a column in the ultra-leftist weekly Mladina, his academic colleague Vlado Miheljak defended him. In his work, he could not miss the various bureks, the cultural borders of the Balkans, his burden with the character and work of Janez Janša (or his honorary doctorate from Pristina), etc. A little more attention deserves the confrontation with the newspaper Slovenske novice and the journalist Igor Pirkovič, who tried to stand their ground by slandering folk music.
Both professors in question certainly did not experience the horrors of fascism on their own skin (otherwise they would not be so easily entangled with such a vocabulary). Miheljak, for example, with “mussolinisation” and even imaginary “dejanševisation” (given the real situation in social subsystems, the term “dekučanisation” would be more appropriate, if we are already descending to this level…). The gentlemen from the FDV did not taste national oppression, famine, camps, torture, and war. That is why their vehement use of this kind of vocabulary seems surprising. We could hear such vocabulary from the former party leader Milan Kučan, who in 1988 compared workers who fought for independence and democracy with fascists. In 2022, he continued his observations in Dražgoše, which borders on political schizophrenia.
The weekly Mladina parasitises on the costs of patients
The communist Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu did the same, but then ended badly. He was judged by the people, put in front of a wall, and shot. When someone without a hint of respect for the real victims of fascism uses these base words, we can know that it is something completely different. Usually, there is a fear of losing various bonuses and social positions acquired through the party (or blood) line. It is about maintaining a social climate that underestimates ambition and real success. It is a desire to parasitise at the expense of taxpayers. And Mladina, for which Miheljak writes, is part of a transitional parasitic system. It is powered by mafia deals in healthcare, through vascular splints, and so on.
At the same time, the memory leads us to controversial companies abroad and to the Parallel Mechanism, about which economist Rado Pezdir writes. It is a combination of the work of academic circles, civil society (Metelkova 6), the judiciary, the prosecutor’s office, the media, etc. However, we must know that not only ambition and honest work are enough for the successful development of a society, but also belonging to the local environment, province, country, and nation. The positive attitude of individuals towards these entities increases concern for them. And the greater the concern, the greater the personal input. Even private property is valued differently than public property. And if folk music awakens in people positive feelings of belonging that strengthen their connection with the local community, their awareness and care, then it is more than welcome, even necessary.