By: T. F. / Nova24tv
According to the latest information, the unknown perpetrators addressed the mail, which contained death threats and even bullets, to at least six different addresses. First, information came to light that the Prime Minister Janez Janša and the Minister of Defence Matej Tonin received the mail at their home address, and today the Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs, the President of the SNS Zmago Jelinčič Plemeniti and two MP groups in the National Assembly, DeSUS and SNS, also confirmed they received it. The seventh shipment with the same content, which was supposedly intended for SMC president Zdravko Počivalšek, was intercepted on an X-ray at the post office. How was the mail even able to reach the remaining recipients? Pošta Slovenije says that they acted in accordance with the rules. And while the coalition in the National Assembly unanimously condemned the actions of unknown perpetrators, in the KUL quartet, with the exception of Tanja Fajon, everyone is silent (for the time being).
Former police officer and Minister of the Interior, Dr Vinko Gorenak, who believes that such death threats should be taken extremely seriously, admits that we are witnessing an increase in threats of violence, especially from high-ranking political representatives over the last year and a half. “In 2012/2013, during the second Janša government, the number of such threats was similar to the current one. I myself was directly threatened with death, so the police, as a minister at the time, additionally protected me. A characteristic phenomenon is that the number of such threats is large, much higher during the right wing governments, especially during the Janša governments, and the number of such threats is much smaller or almost negligible during the left wing governments. This says everything and more about left wing political extremism,” said the state secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, in charge of communication between the government and the National Assembly.
Although at first glance it seems that the senders of such anonymous shipments are difficult to track down, Gorenak says that his experience is positive and that the police tracked down several perpetrators at his suggestion (the legal condition is that the police would not act without the victim’s suggestion). “There were also court proceedings and they were all in my favour. However, this is not always the case, the police cannot always track down such extremists,” says Dr Gorenak.
Failure to act leads to the worst violence
And how else, according to him, should the police act? After all, two strangers, Wednesday’s protesters, even wanted to enter Minister Tonin’s house. “If I am properly informed, in this case it is a coincidence and not an intent related to the Wednesday’s protesters. The mentioned protesters are supposed to be T2 representatives, but according to my information they were detained during the Wednesday’s protests. Failure to act, of course, can lead to even the worst violence. The question, however, is who should act. If you look at the police measures, you will find that there are quite a few of them, some are annulled by the Constitutional Court, some by prosecutors, and nothing in the courts. The violent demonstrations in 2010 and those in 2012 and 2013 received little epilogue in the courts,” Gorenak recalls of the period of the second Janša government, of which stability was based on the principles of the All-Slovenia uprising.
The responsibility lies with the left spectrum of politics
And who is most responsible for the state of mind in society? “A real question that requires an honest answer. First and foremost, politics, more precisely the left spectrum of politics. When the media published threats to Janez Janša, Matej Tonin and some other SNS and DeSUS politicians, we were able to follow the reactions of Fajon (SD), Šarec (LMŠ), Mesec (Levica) and Bratušek (SAB). By the way, in my opinion, these are the most serious threats to politicians to date, as they have added real bullets to the threatening letters. And how did these politicians react? Fajon condemned the threats on her Twitter profile, but cynically added that Janša and Tonin were actually to blame. So what did she say to the perpetrators of the threats? Please continue, you could say.”
Gorenak also warns that Marjan Šarec and Luka Mesec did not respond, which, according to him, means that they are announcing the same, that the perpetrators should continue with threats. “I do not know what Bratušek did, because she blocked me on her Twitter profile, just as she blocked all people with the surname Gorenak just in case.”
A Member of Parliament was recently assassinated
For our website, the current situation in the country was also commented on by a defence expert, Dr Vladimir Prebilič from the Faculty of Social Sciences, who points out that we are witnessing an increase in similar situations all over Europe, which of course is by no means excusable. In democracies, disagreements, loss of trust and frustration with political elites should be resolved in different ways: by protest (without violence and in a way that does not endanger others), in the National Assembly, which is a place of political struggle, and especially in elections. “Every threat must be taken extremely seriously, as it can quickly turn into a tragedy, the case of Great Britain and the murder of a Member of Parliament. I believe that those in charge of security will act the same,” Prebilič emphasised.
Prebilič, who was also a guest on the show Razkrito in mid-October on the topic of police actions on Wednesday’s protests, believes that the perpetrators will be difficult to find, as they usually carefully cover their tracks. “However, the protocol for protected persons is clear and must ensure the safety of the person performing this function. The protection of a person is still based on defensive tactics, which means that security measures must be implemented in a manner of minimal use of force or on its reciprocity,” adds the current mayor of Kočevje.
Unlike Gorenak, Prebilič sees the reasons for such a tense situation in society on three factors: measures to limit the spread of the disease are politicised to the extreme, which opens the door to various populist explanations and thus (too) many manipulations, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia did not communicate some decisions, that would be more acceptable and less stressful with a different approach, but at the same time the political struggle (political parties of both left and right spectrum) exceeded all reasonable measures, which intensifies the sense of emergency and further heats up the public.