By: Gašper Blažič
The closer the elections get, the more noticeable the nervousness of the current ruling elite becomes. If four years ago the deep state activated Jure Leben’s then‑existing party and transformed it into the “fresh” Freedom Movement, things are now entirely different.
Many now describe the government as a kind of confused nightclub, where true sound cacophony reigns, accompanied by plenty of (artificially produced) fog, while the advertisements around us invite us to stay at this venue and believe what we see – namely, Potemkin villages. Even more: we are supposed to believe what the DJ is telling us, while – in a half‑dazed state – the club staff pick the last of what we have from our pockets.
Slovenian or Serbian Ljubljana?
And what does this “artificial fog” represent in Slovenian political reality? Above all, the spreading of an ideological agenda aimed at mobilising left‑wing voters and simultaneously demobilising those who might support opposition parties in the elections. As is known, some tricks of the current ruling elite have failed. Prime Minister Robert Golob’s speeches at Osankarica and Dražgoše quickly sank into oblivion, as hardly anyone paid much attention to them. Therefore, they had to invent a new artificial lure to provoke the already‑indoctrinated emotions of the people. As is known, SDS president Janez Janša accompanied the accordionists’ gathering in Ljubljana on the national holiday of 26 December 2025 with the words “We have made Ljubljana Slovenian again.” What followed was a delayed but predictable reaction from the Ljubljana left. City councillors, naturally those supporting Zoran Janković, attacked Janša, claiming he was paraphrasing Adolf Hitler. They were likely hinting at Hitler’s words supposedly spoken in Maribor in 1941, “make this land German again” (in reality, he did not say this in Maribor, but earlier in Berlin).
The illusion of Hitler’s successors
Be that as it may, Ljubljana city councillors from Janković’s list, the Freedom Movement, the Left, and the Social Democrats placed on the agenda of the February city council session a proposal to avoid glorifying Nazism. But this was in fact driven more by panic within their own ranks than by any real concern about the spread of slogans from the junkyard of totalitarian ideologies. The Ljubljana left wanted once again to send the completely false message to the public that Janša, with his statement, was flirting with Nazism, which in their view would confirm that the SDS is an extreme‑right party. Janša, of course, responded on social media, saying that it was the accordion players who restored Slovenian identity to Ljubljana, which is actually the opposite of Adolf Hitler’s desire to Germanise Slovenian lands; and that is precisely what the trubači (Serbian brass bands) do. And this trend has strengthened significantly during Janković’s mayoral tenure. Let us recall: in mid‑December, the Ljubljana city council banned such trubač performances until the New Year, but the ban was general, and everyone hoped it would also prevent the accordionists’ gathering. But that did not happen, because the organisers had registered the event in advance. “No, Janša paraphrased the anti‑Hitler. With the accordion players we made Ljubljana MORE SLOVENIAN. And not more Serbian or German. And we will do so again. So: take your trubači to your Russian dachas. Here things will be done our way, this is our home,” SDS leader Janša told them on X.
Two sides of the same coin
It is interesting how, almost simultaneously, a party that had until now positioned itself much further to the right than the SDS was exposed. Namely, the controversial former police officer Zoran Stevanović, who was once a member of the SNS before leaving and founding the pro‑Russian and supposedly nationalist or sovereigntist party Resni.ca, had long ago revealed himself as a reserve force of the transitional left. Some time ago he even notarised a pledge that his party would under no circumstances enter a coalition with the SDS. And Stevanović’s supporters on social media attack the SDS far more viciously than any party of the transitional left. We should also recall the riotous protests during COVID, when an incited crowd even stormed across Ljubljana’s northern ring road and caused real chaos – not to mention the fraternising of the protest organisers with some very controversial figures, including Anis Ličina and others known from the crime pages. These things must be remembered because various far‑right groups and parties known for opposing the EU, NATO, and Israel, and on the other hand for antisemitism and sympathy for Putin’s regime in Moscow, are in fact much more similar to far‑left parties (the Left is such an example) than to any normal right‑wing party. The deep state’s wishful thinking was that Stevanović’s party would be pushed over the parliamentary threshold, which would allow the continuation of what we have seen over the past four years. But it should be noted that Resni.ca is no kingmaker, since it is already predetermined that it will side with the transitional left. Meanwhile, the propaganda of the ruling coalition will continue repeating the false mantra that the SDS is “far‑right.”
Golob takes inspiration from Milošević
But this artificial fog is obviously just an attempt to cover up a bitter reality, as Golob’s government has recently been carrying out an assault on public finances by abusing budget funds to cover the costs of a propaganda project meant to explain to the public all the government’s achievements so far. This is roughly comparable to what Milošević’s regime in Belgrade did almost immediately after the Slovenian plebiscite, when it unlawfully “borrowed” 18 billion and 243 million dinars (around 1.4 billion US dollars at the time) from the primary issuance of the National Bank of Yugoslavia. Naturally, for his own political needs. This bandit move by the “vožd” sealed the political fate of the then federal prime minister Ante Marković, who from that moment on had his hands tied and could only threaten Slovenia over its blockade of sending Slovenian conscripts to the Yugoslav People’s Army. The modus operandi used by Slobodan Milošević has apparently survived through the decades not only in today’s Serbian ruling elite but also among its imitators in Slovenia, from Zoran Janković all the way to Robert Golob and his ministers. Of course, such abuse, like the alleged ten‑day “informing” of the public about government achievements, is not new. Cerar’s government, for example, ensured that the first referendum on the second rail track failed, because government financing of the campaign was unfair. But this time, nothing stands above Golob’s government but the blue sky, and no one can annul its financing of its own campaign with taxpayers’ money.
Is it then surprising that activist Nika Kovač is now appearing from every media “can”? Things are apparently so serious that even the “Big Brother” himself, Milan Kučan, spoke publicly through an interview in Reporter, directly warning against a fourth Janša government. This further confirms the thesis that the ruling left has no programme. Its only programme is power at any cost. In reality, Golob’s government is already dancing its near‑final death dance.
Dr Andrej M. Poznič: The ruling elite resorts to deception
Dr Andrej M. Poznič, moral theologian and publicist: “Common sense and honest calculation tell every citizen that something in our country is seriously wrong. Inflation is obvious. All the bills have skyrocketed, despite subsidies, state‑regulated prices, and other familiar left‑wing practices summed up in the slogan ‘more state, nothing outside the state, nothing without the state.’ Of course, leftists are convinced that they are the state, and therefore may do whatever they please. But since this clashes with common sense, and even more with actual results, we now have less freedom, less economic growth, less pluralism, less tolerance, and less respect for those who think differently than we had four years ago.
Because left‑wing ideology, in whatever form it arrives, be it fascism, Nazism, or communism, never brings prosperity, all of them resort to violence, propaganda, and state monopolies, which they naturally control. Even here, the current rulers’ tendencies toward a state monopoly over every aspect of our lives are obvious. They quickly imposed new taxes and new repressive restrictions that destroy freedom of speech and limit pluralism in education and the media. The people said ‘Enough!’ to these bullies only when they went after the sick and the elderly. For the hallmark of leftists is that their solution is always killing (abortion, euthanasia, and in extreme cases gulags and pogroms).
Since they cannot actually convince anyone, they resort to deception, manipulation, buying people off, bribery, and brainwashing. Leftists never campaign in elections with anything other than ideological themes that polarise, divide, and fuse different groups into the mass they need to survive the vote. What else is the promise that they will do in the next term what they failed to do in this one, if not ideological fluff? As if they do not already have the power to fulfil all their promises now. Leftists always fight from ideological trenches.”
Note: The article was originally published in the print edition of Demokracija.