In the time of a pandemic of the deadly virus, when it is clear that the health, economic and social consequences of the coronavirus and several months of global economic turndown will be felt for many years, the deep state still finds it more important to bring down the current government, rather than to save lives.
The perversion of the media-political connection, which is taking advantage of the emergency state of healthcare and safety conditions for settling the political score with the current government, is far beyond anything we have seen in Slovenian politics so far. We have not been faced with such a grave challenge that threatens the lives of thousands of people, since the time of the war for independence.
The coronavirus is an invisible enemy that strikes violently, wherever it finds that the environment is poorly prepared for it. As we have all witnessed in the case of Lombardy, where the coronavirus launched its deadly march through Europe, the very fact that they were not properly prepared and protected for such a health threat caused a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. Slovenia, however, was being threatened by the fact that the exact same scenario could have happened here as well.
They want to make Slovenia the epicenter of abnormality
The empty commodity reserves, which had a negligible amount of protective equipment left by the time when the virus had already arrived in Slovenia and caused the first deaths, meant that in a few days, we should have been preparing for the collapse of the healthcare system. We can only thank the new government, which took the situation into its own hands when the epidemic was declared for its swift action, which meant that we were able to avoid the worst. Whoever, regardless of their political preferences, is unable to understand this, is apparently unable to think intellectually, and cannot be helped. The rest of us who are able to understand this, can now, when the worst is probably already behind us, also talk about what could have been done better and more rationally during the time of the state of emergency. In a normal country, such an approach is an integral part of good political management, which aims to make crisis management even more effective in the face of possible new challenges in the future.
Now that we are able to say that we have successfully managed to curb the epidemic in Slovenia with the responsible behavior of the majority of our citizens and in compliance with the governmental measures, we would expect the politics to focus its attention on the measures which would help relaunch the economy. So the goal of the political forces should have been to normalize life as quickly as possible and to try and preserve or even create jobs. It would seem completely normal, if the opposition had already convened extraordinary sessions of the various commissions, or even the entire Parliament, with the request that the government presents its economic strategy, which would aim to minimize the economic and social consequences of the economic downturn, and thus, the greater social vulnerability of the citizens, which is likely to happen because of the consequences of the epidemic. Everyone normal in the world is currently thinking about this; it is the subject of political debate in any normal country. However, some people have long wanted to make Slovenia the epicenter of political and other abnormalities.
Trying to bring the country into a political crisis during an epidemic is a crime!
But instead of talking about how we are going to relaunch the economy and other critical activities, especially the education sector, how we can increase the financing for the healthcare system in the future so that it would be able to successfully face new health challenges (since they will not just disappear, at least until the vaccine for the new virus would become available), instead of discussing how we will successfully manage the new reality, we are discussing… Early elections??
How very abnormal Slovenia really is, is clearly shown in how easy it is for the media to accept misinformation as fact and then spread it, how easy it is for them to create affairs, which are further heightening the feeling of insecurity that many people are feeling nowadays. And how convenient it is for them to use for their own malicious purposes what is most talked about during the time of a health crisis: protective equipment
We have read or heard very little from the media about the fact that Slovenia, thanks to the former Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, was faced with the epidemic with virtually no protective equipment. Today, both of the key actors in the then-government (and today’s opposition), Marjan Šarec and Dejan Židan, are making appearances as the on-call righteous persons, lecturing everyone about how Janša’s government should have managed the country during the time of the greatest threat since the war for Slovenia’s independence. But in doing so, they make no suggestions on how to stem the deadly virus and prevent more deaths, how to restart the economy and prevent the businesses from closing. No. This is probably much too difficult for them. They prefer to demagogically discuss the protective equipment that was bought and brought to Slovenia practically overnight, under abnormal conditions. The reason for this was primarily the fact that the previous government was not able to recognize the gravity of the situation and act in a timely manner.
Not the anti-crisis measures and potentially thousands of victims due to the novel virus; for the leftists, the main problem is, where and how the protective masks were purchased during the world-wide state of emergency?! Abnormal, despicable, anti-state-like. But that is just what the Slovenian left is like. Trying to bring the country into a political crisis at a time when the epidemic has not been overcome yet and human lives are still at risk, is a criminal act, is it threatens thousands of lives. The left is so slow that it does not even understand that the epidemic is not over yet, but that this is the slowdown of the first wave, which is known to be followed by at least one more wave of infections in the fall, or until the majority of the population has either already been vaccinated, or they have already recovered from the virus. What else, other than a criminal act, is it to try to prevent the controlling of the situation and the spread of the epidemic by mining the measures and creating a political state of emergency?
The settling of the political score had begun even before the coronavirus has ended its deadly march across Slovenia. Thus, the interpellation of not just the Minister of the Economy Zdravko Počivalšek, but of the entire Janez Janša’s government has already been announced. The alleged demand for the transparency of procurement procedures for protective equipment has quickly turned into an orchestrated attack on the government. All of this, in spite of the warnings from the experts that say that in an emergency, which a pandemic surely is, the ordinary business practices change completely, and it is impossible to play by the same rules that apply in a normal situation. During the times of the state of emergency, the fastest one, the one who has the most connections and above all, the largest amount of money quickly readily available, is the one who wins. Our small country of Slovenia is fighting for the same thing as many of the global giants, which can offer significantly more money at significantly higher prices. And yet, we were able to do everything that the big, wealthy countries were able to do. We have protected our citizens, prevented unnecessary deaths, and that is the most any government can do in a situation like this.
The deep state was cut off from the deals in the procurement of safety equipment
Let’s take a look at the media’s behavior. If, at the beginning of the epidemic, and thus the beginning of the new government’s term in office, the daily media coverage constantly reported on the lack of or inadequacy of the protective equipment, a turnaround in media coverage happened immediately after the government was able to locate and supply, in record time, all of the necessary protective equipment. The dramatic scenes and statements of concerned citizens and inadequately protected medical staff and other most exposed persons, security-wise, were quickly replaced by the media’s constant search for errors and weaknesses in the government’s actions. It would have been interesting to see how many sellers of masks or protective equipment emerged anew during this time. We have witnessed the media’s demonization of all 29 Slovenian companies which were involved in the procurement of protective equipment, but the reason for this was mainly just that they were not “the right ones.”
The criterion for the selection was the deadline, within which the companies were able to provide adequate quality and adequate quantity of the protective equipment, and not “who” was behind these companies. Thus, Sebastjana Selan, the former director of SOVA (during his time, Iran had laundered one billion euros through the NLB), was not part of the selected few. Nowadays, Selan also sells protective masks through his company. The Association of Chemical Industries at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia had suggested his company as an option to all of its members, stating that they could turn to Sebastjan Selan in regards to the procurement of the masks. In addition to Selan, a founding member of Forum 21 and one of the richest Slovenians who is an active member of the Social Democrats, Sanci Češko, was also mentioned as an option, as well as a company of the well-known Bebler family, run by Žiga Bebler.
When “the procedure” becomes more important than saving lives
When the government was very quickly able to successfully supply the protective equipment and secure adequate reserves that will suffice for several months, and when it was officially declared that we had enough protective equipment for at least a month, the media’s anti-government campaign quickly turned to finding mistakes in the procurement of the equipment. The purchase of the protective masks was supposedly non-transparent, without a proper procedure!! The procedure is what matters now, not the content! Can you imagine the maliciousness of someone who believes that in a situation where people all over the world were dying of a novel virus, and while we did not know whether the virus would kill ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand people in Slovenia, the Ministers should have been thinking about the transparency of the procedure?? Perhaps they should have instead just been thinking about the purchasing of coffins or maybe the increase of the capacities for cremation??? Only in a sick mind could a scenario emerge, in which, at a time when people are already dying because of a novel virus, the government bodies are preparing tenders, thinking about headlines, selecting the most favorable bidder, and then waiting for the deadlines, so the bidders that were not selected can lodge their complaints. If we had followed this procedure, the first masks would have arrived in Slovenia somewhere around September! In the meantime, we could have been purchasing coffins and urns on the world market, as we would surely have been burying thousands. However, all of these “details,” the fact that as a country, we were on the brink of a collapse of the healthcare system and thus, the entire society, obviously do not matter to anyone anymore. The Former Prime Minister does not care about the fact that he left the citizens completely unprepared for an epidemic. To him and his supporters, the only thing that matters right now is the procedure of the procurement of protective masks! During a state of emergency, we did not properly follow all the PROCEDURES! Believe that, if you can.
But the insanity of certain people in this country simply cannot be measured. It cannot be stopped, not even by a deadly virus. Obviously, some of the political circles on the left still follow the old communist principle: “The worse off they are (the Slovenians), the better for us!” They might even be regretting the fact that the new government has succeeded in its efforts and managed to protect the citizens from the Italian scenario, which would have brought thousands of deaths to Slovenia, with its effective, timely measures and swift action. The government’s main problem seems to be that it has proven that it can work optimally even in the worst of circumstances. Something that is otherwise typical for Janez Janša and which cannot be denied, even by his biggest political opponents.
Andrej Žitnik
