By: Nova24tv.si
“In the Assembly for the Republic, we particularly highlight the unacceptable and offensive reasoning of the Celje District Prosecutor’s Office, which claims that the statue of Josip Broz Tito is an object of special cultural significance, a natural asset, protected heritage, or even a public good,” the Assembly for the Republic (ZzR) wrote in its public statement regarding the indictment against Miroslav Pačnik for beheading Tito’s statue in Velenje.
The Assembly for the Republic issued a special public statement responding to the indictment against Pačnik. Due to the beheading of the statue of dictator and mass murderer Josip Broz Tito, he faces up to five years in prison and a high financial penalty. Attached to the statement is also a letter sent by ZzR member Franci Kindlhofer, a “child of Petriček,” to the presiding judge, Leonida Jager. The statue of Tito in Velenje, they argue, stands as an affront to all victims of the communist regime.
Full public statement:
“In the Assembly for the Republic, we see the beheading of Tito’s statue in Velenje as a clear moral and political message. It is an expression of freedom of speech.
Miroslav Pačnik expressed his disagreement with the imposition of symbols, and consequently the values, of the former state in public spaces through the symbolic beheading of a statue that embodies the former totalitarian authority. The Republic of Slovenia was founded on a value-based discontinuity with the previous regime. This discontinuity, most evident in the democratic system and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, has never been fully carried out. There are many examples of this incompleteness. For instance: as long as we have paradoxes such as the statue of Boris Kidrič in the Square of Europe, of the very international organisation that, through the ECtHR, has greatly contributed to strengthening democratic principles and human rights in Europe, including Slovenia, this will be disturbing for the thinking majority, as it is incompatible with the values on which the Slovenian state is founded. Citizens of the Republic of Slovenia must therefore have the freedom to point out this unfinished value-based discontinuity with the former regime. If they are criminally prosecuted for doing so, it means that the Republic of Slovenia denies the values on which it is founded and appropriates those that belonged to the SFRY.
In the Assembly for the Republic, we particularly highlight the unacceptable and offensive reasoning of the Celje District Prosecutor’s Office, which claims that the statue of Josip Broz Tito is an object of special cultural significance, a natural asset, protected heritage, or even a public good. In reality, it is merely a relic of history which may evoke nostalgic feelings in some, but in today’s time represents everything that is incompatible with the constitutional order, values, and principles on which the Republic of Slovenia rests. Therefore, such statues do not belong on main public squares.
In the Assembly for the Republic, we support the content of the public letter sent by our member Franci Kindlhofer, also a ‘child of Petriček,’ to the president of the judicial panel, District Judge Leonida Jager, and we fully reproduce it below.
Letter by Franci Kindlhofer
Dear Ms. Jager,
The indictment of the Celje District Court against the accused Miroslav Pačnik cites as a criminal offence the ‘damage or destruction of an object of special cultural significance or natural value’ (Criminal Code, Article 219). On my own behalf and on behalf of the other children of Petriček, I ask your court: what cultural significance for Slovenia was represented by the killing of innocent people in Teharje and the imprisonment of their children in the Petriček camp? All of this was carried out under the orders of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and its leader, Josip Broz Tito.
The monument to this dictator in Velenje cries out for removal. It stands there as an insult to all his victims. Your court also belongs among his victims, as your colleagues in 1945, after the communist takeover, were forced to attend accelerated courses so they could judge according to communist laws and thus keep their jobs. To avoid further public debates harmful to the reputation of the court, I urge you to thoroughly reconsider this indictment against the honest citizen Pačnik. The conscientious citizen Miroslav Pačnik had nothing in mind other than the removal of a provocation unacceptable for a democratic Slovenia.
Assembly for the Republic, prim. Janez Remškar, President”
