By: Sara Rančigaj / Nova24tv
Given the current situation in the country and the announced protests on the Day of Uprising Against Occupation, we checked with historian Jože Možina whether it is possible to draw any parallel with the then left and the left today. As he notes, the left has retained its arrogance, but its representatives are much weaker, compared to the previous leaders. This weakness is especially evident in protests, where those who are otherwise well-situated but are afraid of losing their privileges mostly protest. On the other hand, we have people struggling to survive, filling the pockets of the privileged with their work, and instead of protesting, they hoe a garden. “Among the protesters are probably those who blame others, for example the government, for their failures rather than themselves. Those who are struggling to survive do not have time to parade,” Možina is convinced.
Historian, sociologist, journalist, and author of the book Slovenski razkol, Jože Možina, notes that the celebration would make sense if, on the Day of Uprising Against Occupation, we celebrated the uprising against all oppressive regimes and ideologies that pushed us to National Socialism and Communism. However, this is not the case. On April 27th, 1941, nothing had happened, but the day before, members of the Association of Friends of the Soviet Union, opponents of imperialism, personified by Great Britain and already defeated France, met in Vidmar’s villa in Rožna Dolina.
The Communists did not think about the uprising at the time, the uprising only happened when Russia was attacked. Given that the left sees Prime Minister Janez Janša as an occupier, we were interested in how it is possible to connect parallels with the then and present uprising. Možina notes that now only a part of the people, especially those who are fighting for their privileges, is creating the revolt. As Dr Ernest Petrič already noted in an interview with Možina a year ago, it is mostly the privileged that are protesting today, those who are well-situated and those who, despite the crisis, have not had anything bad happen to them. “Probably also those who blame others for their failure, for example the government, rather than themselves. Those who are struggling to survive do not have time to parade,” he is convinced.
In the fight for privileges
He goes on to point out how on Friday MP Boris Doblekar saw an activist Jaša Jenull cycling to the “battlefield” with a speaker and mentioned his 72-year-old mother, who meanwhile digs with a hoe and gardens with a minimum pension after 40 years of service. “He told everything by that. In ideological terms, many see it that way. Favourites of the Slovenian left are protesting in concern for their privileges. Their basic problem is because they have neither the content nor the fitness for it. The only selfless support provided to them is by the dominant media, without them they would not exist,” he adds.
Given that today the majority media play a major role in propagating protests and supporting protesters, we wanted to compare the media situation at the time of the Second World War and today. Možina points out that the media situation at that time was completely different. During the occupation, public media, newspapers and radio were under the occupier’s censorship. The illegal press played a key role in influencing the people, especially in Ljubljana, where the communists were extremely strong and propulsive when it came to propaganda.
“They played on the patriotic feelings of the people and abused the established norm in the then civilisation that the written word has the attribute of truth. People were not used to lying and media manipulating, so at first they really believed in many things that were not true,” he said. He explains that the media at the time played an extremely important role in declaring national traitors who had been killed by the Communists. Often, the first reactions of people were: “yes, he had to do something, because a man is not killed just like that.” At that time, people did not know that the threatening ideologies of the 20th century, National Socialism and Communism, were actually killing people ‘just like that’. Later, many started to see. Možina notes that today media manipulation is again a fundamental tool, of course there are no classic murders, but there are the media ones.
As for the parallels with the then collapse of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and today’s independent state, he sees no direct parallels. “It is true, however, that the pre-war communists directed most of their activities towards the overthrow of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Recent events with the so-called non-existent document, as well as examples of open lies about the media situation in Slovenia abroad, show that this part of the radical Slovenian left does not care about this country,” he was critical. He notes that for political domination and the removal of the current government, they are ready to gamble the country’s reputation and even threaten it. “This is extremely worrying. If you will, it was characteristic of the communists before and during the war that they used all means for their subversive purposes.”
Just as the left “collaborated” with the Germans and Nazism, they are now willing to work with anyone they would benefit from to achieve their goals
The collaboration or alliance of the Communists with Hitler’s Germany from the signing of the Hitler-Stalin Pact in August 1939 to the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22nd, 1941, is evident. “Even today, the concern of many is that the radical currents of the Slovene left are ready to “collaborate” with anyone, even to announce lies and false documents so that many come to power,” he said, noting that they are clearly not worried about the country’s reputation.
Even from history a kind of war between East and West has been going on, as the Western Allies have in many cases been treated as enemies by the left. “A complete confusion presides here, even regarding such wars – who against whom. And it would be funny if it was not also sad and threatening for our way of life and values,” he added. He observes that the global ideologies, which are now being born by the already somewhat tired, for some degenerate, West, come in handy to the Slovene left, which has been completely exhausted in terms of ideas and with a negative personnel selection even without charismatic leaders.
The left has retained the arrogance of the past, but their leaders are becoming increasingly weak
As he observes, revolutionaries in World War II had, unlike today’s left, extremely hard-working and hard-bitten leaders. “Many of them were primitive, but many of them had some arrogance in them, the arrogance remained, but from generation to generation the leaders have become weaker,” he explained. However, he believes that the left could be able to lead a successful country only if it was able to form a supporting, charismatic, and capable figure of a leader, which is becoming an increasing problem even among world authorities. He recalls the performances of Alenka Bratušek and Marjan Šarec and is convinced that the media did not do their job at the time and revealed their shortcomings, because they were neither balanced nor critical. “It was about maintaining something, and meanwhile we all know that Marjan Šarec’s rule was a disgrace, as was Alenka Bratušek’s interview for CNN.”