By: Ivan Šokić / Nova24tv
It is necessary to have many irons in the fire, the saying goes. And on RTV Slovenia, they definitely stick to that. At a time when Friday’s anti-government political cyclers were already losing momentum and becoming a parody of themselves, and RTV was persistently silent about the protests of opponents of vaccination against covid-19, which took place daily in front of their entrance, they conducted a short interview for Tarča show with the leader of Resni.ca Zoran Stevanović. On Wednesday, his protesters were already breaking into the RTV building and intimidating employees.
The approach of the public RTV Slovenia is certainly interesting. For four months, it persistently ignored the anti-vaccination protests that took place in front of the RTV Slovenia building in Ljubljana, while at the same time, as part of the Tarča show dedicated to new political initiatives, on May 20th, 2021 they took the time for a short interview with the leader of Resni.ca, Zoran Stevanović. Together with Stevanović, the mentioned party is best known as the organiser of unregistered mid-rallies to oppose government measures and compulsory vaccination against covid-19. At that time, other old new faces were also presented in Tarča, such as Jure Lebno’s Z.DEJ, Aleksandra Pivec’s Naša dežela, and the Povežimo Slovenijo movement, which includes SLS, Zeleni Slovenije, NSLS with the support of SMC. In all honesty, Resni.ca was not even mentioned in the summary of the show on the RTV Slovenia web portal at the time. The lion’s share of attention was paid to the President of the Court of Audit, Tomaž Vesel, who has neither established nor officially joined any party.
But while Ladislav Troha’s intruders equated the government of Janez Janša and RTV Slovenia and were initially ignored and then condemned by the public house, Stevanović is more tactful. He attacks all established parliamentary politics, both left and right, the deep state and its lackeys. Such an appearance is more acceptable for the public house, because during a year and a half of active government subversion, they were under the impression that by tirelessly advertising Friday’s political cyclers, they clearly showed that if they are anything on RTV Slovenia, they are against the current center-right government.
In the past, RTV Slovenia advertised the organiser of violent anti-government riots, Anis Ličina, who after the riots, when photojournalist Borut Živulović was seriously injured, even had the opportunity to give advice to journalists on how to avoid violence in the Tednik programme on RTV Slovenia. “I suggest, if you are a journalist, that you just have a vest, anything, marked with RTV, and you can quickly avoid it,” Ličina said. The alleged vest with the RTV Slovenia label protects against broken jaws and serious injuries, due to which Živulović ended up in the emergency room.
Parliamentarians avoid populism, Resni.ca lives it
If until recently on RTV Slovenia they had immunity from Ličina and his smashers, they were now registered as the same as the government to anti-vaccinators. At first, condemnations were heard from the public house, but after seeing that the crowd at the Wednesday’s “anti-vaccination” rallies far exceeded the number of political cyclists on Friday, they decided to adjust their attitude. Resni.ca opposes the current government, it also opposes all other parliamentary parties, but RTV Slovenia is ready to ignore this. It is just another thorn that they can turn against the government, which they cannot see from the first day of its existence.
Stevanović is not a naïve person either, which is also confirmed by the political programme Resni.ca. The programme is populist. But while both the left and the right in parliament view populism as something bad, and flee before the word like the devil from the cross, in Resni.ca they grabbed to populism like a drunk grabs a fence. In the programme, everyone will find something for themselves, right, left, vaccinated, unvaccinated, politically defined or political illiterate.
“For the last 30 years, Slovenia has been ruled by a destructive policy, a policy of brutal corruption, a policy that falsely divides us into left and right, but in reality it is only about two wings of the same bird of prey,” Stevanović told RTV Slovenia. “We have some nominal right, which is not really the case. And there is some artificially created evil dragon that has some stable part of the electorate, but most people vote against it. On the nominal left, which is also not the case, we have some useless remnants of the former system, and at the same time some new parties are constantly being established like new companies run by some new faces of the deep state, which means only personnel changes and no new policies.”
The alternative to this, Stevanović claims, is Resni.ca, which is supposed to carry a new policy. “This is the policy of the future, a policy where politicians deliver certificates of impunity. Politics where politicians are aware that they are merely envoys of the people, those who must act in their favour and defend their will at all costs, and not trade their political votes on the political stage.” The main goal of Resni.ca is parliamentary elections, Stevanović said in an interview with Žurnal24 in February 2021. And these are getting closer every day.