By: Sara Kovač (Nova24tv.si)
“At the government, we cancelled the Decision on the declaration of a national day of remembrance for the victims of communist violence, which was adopted by the previous government. At that time, the decision was adopted without prior professional and public discussion, with the sole purpose of repeating history and dividing the public again,” the news from Robert Golob’s government echoed just a few hours before the national holiday. What do historians say, is the memory of the victims of communism really a falsification of history, as they say in the government, although many countries even have museums dedicated to the victims of communism? What is the government communicating with this not only to Slovenia, the victims, and the descendants of the victims, but also to the European Union, which has condemned all totalitarian regimes, including communism? Is this ideological struggle necessary for Slovenia in times of crisis and inflation? All historians agree that instead of the effective and urgent introduction of reforms, the government deliberately engages in ideological struggles and the destruction of the rule of law.
“It is a barbaric act and an unimaginable interference in reconciliation efforts in Slovenia, when at least the dead should be treated according to the same criteria. It can be seen that the government of Robert Golob is certainly the background of Milan Kučan, still counting on being able to hide the historical truth and make fun of the victims. At the same time, I assess that with this act they became, in a sense, the heirs of these crimes,” said critically historian Dr Jože Možina and author of the show Pričevalci, in which both victims and descendants of victims of the communist regime appeared with horrific stories.
With all that is happening, historian Dr Tamara Griesser Pečar, said “that nothing surprises me anymore. I have a feeling that we are going back to those times that we threw away in years 90 and 91. Just like in the year 45 there was no freedom when we came from one totalitarian regime to another, it seems that those who are now called the Gibanje Svoboda, accept that definition of freedom from 1945”.
Griesser Pečar said that the victims of the communist regime mean nothing to the government. Let us remind you that the constitutionalists of the so-called Social Democracy in our country, that is, a party that has only changed its name, paid tribute to the statue of Boris Kidrič, who was one of those responsible for what happened in our country immediately after the war, she also said and added that apparently the victims of the communist regime are second-class.
The government tells the victims of communism that they are not victims
Meanwhile, moral theologian Dr Ivan Štuhec said that the government is telling the victims of communism that they are not victims and that they did not starve unjustly, but that they were actually justly punished because they did not accept the communist ideology. “And this in spite of the whole of Europe, the European Parliament, which condemned totalitarian systems.”
Are other countries also “reproducing history” because they have a day of remembrance and museums dedicated to the victims of communism?
Other countries commemorate both with days of remembrance and with museums dedicated to the victims of communism. “Let’s just look across the border to Hungary, where they have a museum. We also know that the worship of communism was banned in some Baltic states. In any case, they behave in a completely different way abroad than Golob’s government behaves here,” Griesser Pečar is convinced, adding that by cancelling the day of remembrance for communist victims, we are telling abroad and Europe that what the European Union is based on means nothing to us. “Now they have announced that they will take over RTV regardless of what the Constitutional Court says. This means that in our country the branches of government are no longer separate.”
The purpose of the government is to falsify history
The government’s goal is to show that they had been planning Slovenia’s independence during the war and definitely after the war since 1941 and that this was one development. “What is not true, it is an absolute historical error, there can be no question of it at all,” said Dr Tamara Griesser Pečar. “Obviously, they still want to somehow cover up and eliminate the merits of the independence fighters from 1990 and 1991. In addition to the fact that this also served to remove historians who were not to their liking, especially Jože Dežman,” she added.
The government’s action means that the occupiers of memory are coming and must be resisted
Historian Jože Dežman said that this was a very stupid measure, which stems from the belief that the truth can still be shaped according to the will of the authorities. “But if they feel that way, let’s say that this does not mean that there will not be a day of remembrance, and it does not mean that the memory will not be developed and strengthened. This means that the occupiers of memory are coming and must be resisted.”
“The government hereby announces that it is consistently following the agenda of the Slovenian left, which is bringing back a totalitarian system through cultural means. The type of their measures in the field of legislation shows that for them the rule of law is not the last criterion, but that the last criterion for them is ideology, to which they also subordinate the rule of law,” said Dr Ivan Štuhec.
The government is incapable of reforms, it is capable of working only in the field of ideology
The fact that they went to abolish this day of remembrance is, of course, in complete logical agreement with the fact that they will return the monuments of the representatives of the totalitarian regime and also in complete agreement with the fact that they actually want to convince the public in every way that we did not make a breakthrough with independence between a totalitarian and a democratic social order, but that we just went from a little less democratic to a little more democratic, believes Štuhec. This can be seen in all their moves so far, he added. “Previously, their mouths were full of how they are non-ideological and how they are not interested in ideology at all, but now we see that most of the things they do are only ideological in nature, while they are not interested or are incapable of doing anything else that would be necessary for them as the government and the coalition to do for the common good of the country. They are capable of working only in the field of ideology,” he concluded.