By: Ivan Šokić
Aleš Primc is a long-time civil society activist and politician. He is the president of the Movement for Children and Families and the president of the political party Voice for Children and Families. He was the initiator and organiser of three victorious family referendums in 2001, 2012, and 2015. Among other things, he studies Slovenian history and historical figures. He prepared proceedings on Dr Janez Evangelist Krek (2007), about the Slovenian Peasants’ Union (2008), Ivan Oman, (2009) and about Jakob Prašnikar, mentor of Anton Martin Slomšek (2011).
DEMOKRACIJA: What can you tell us about yourself? Who are you, what are you doing?
Primc: I am a husband and a father. These are my main missions. I have been resting a bit socially in recent years, but now I am full of power and ideas again.
DEMOKRACIJA: Do you feel that children and families are sufficiently protected these days? Do they need to be protected?
Primc: In principle, children are never sufficiently protected, because just one carelessness is enough, and it can go very wrong. On the other hand, children also need freedom and confidence to develop in their own way. Thus, I see that they develop a sense of responsibility. It seems to me, as far as I talk to my generation, that this is quite a constant educational battle between fathers and mothers in the family. Moms are more protective, and dads take things a little more lightly, leave a little more freedom, or we nag a little less. Depending on what angle you look at the thing. By talking and by everyone indulging a bit sometime, the right compromise is found, which is probably the best. As with other things, it is with education. Already Aristotle said that wisdom is just finding the right compromise in things.
DEMOKRACIJA: Who is attacking children today? What are the problems the normal core family are facing at the moment?
Primc: It is not easy for families these days, especially since family members are scattered on many sides. Mothers and fathers have time, mentally, and some also physically demanding jobs, which usually leave us tired. Burnout is a big problem, and this, as I observe, is mainly for women. Even children have a difficult tempo. I think we overdo it with children with school workloads and, above all, with activities. There are so many options and things that kids and parents feel right about doing, so they have busy schedules all day from morning to night. For two years now, we have said at the beginning of the school year that we will be systematically limiting ourselves. And so we did, but then so many things came along that they are away all day again. Music school alone imposes an obligation on a child three times a week plus homework. Then there is too little movement, personal relaxed socialising with peers, not to mention the screens they are glued to all the time if you do not strictly restrict them. There are big challenges in families on all sides, even if mom and dad are together and understand each other as much as possible. However, if there are serious problems between them, then there are additional challenges. I think moms and dads should systematically take time for themselves and their relationship, retreat every now and then, rest, and connect with each other. I am sure there would be far fewer divorces if moms and dads did that a few times a year.
DEMOKRACIJA: How do you view the commitments of the Gibanje Svoboda, SD, and Levica parties in the recently published programme part of the coalition agreement to include more content on gender and other stereotypes in compulsory education programmes?
Primc: I understand this as their declaration of war to children and families.
DEMOKRACIJA: Harsh words…
Primc: Yes. I am serious. Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, we need to be aware of this. Distracting children from our values has been going on for decades, and now it will be much more obvious. They feel strong and have obviously told themselves they will go all the way now.
DEMOKRACIJA: So, this is about forcing LGBT indoctrination into schools?
Primc: That is right. It is about LGBTQ+ activists moving into the next phase of their anti-family operations when they openly encroach on the school premises without any twists and turns to confuse the heads of children in the most sensitive period. Can you imagine that they want to put in the rules that determine the necessary education of kindergarten teachers, the education of gender studies, of which main starting point is not to recognise the natural male and female sex, but argues that each person must choose their own gender? And not just a man or a woman, but they have concluded that there are supposedly over a hundred of them. And they would now employ these people in kindergartens as educators to burden children with these things, and of course they want to continue to do so throughout the schooling process. This, as you say, was even announced in the coalition agreement. Remember how Golob congratulated on March 8th? He congratulated women and persons who identify as women. For those who do not understand what he meant: congratulations not only to women, but also to men who feel like women. And this model will now be introduced in schools.
DEMOKRACIJA: What is the solution? Can parents resist this?
Primc: With such a government in place, it is imperative that parents, as elsewhere in the world, organise and block at all levels these literal insanities that sadly mislead many children. In countries where children have been harassed with gender reassignment programmes for a long time, very many children succumb and require sex reassignment hormone therapy. Parents’ organisations will have to pay attention to drafting regulations, changing school curricula, and the rights of children and parents will have to be fought for in the schools themselves. The school must complement home education, not ruin it. What homosexual activists want to do with children in schools directly affects the rights of parents to raise their children according to their conscience and their beliefs.
DEMOKRACIJA: Despite all these problems, many parents are only now facing them. Who can they turn to for practical advice?
Primc: On us, that is, the Movement for Children and Families. We have already been approached by several parents who have perceived the intrusion of this ideology in individual schools. We advise parents and, in a few cases, we have very successfully stopped LGBTQ+ propaganda at school. This action will need to be further strengthened. Not only counselling, but also the preparation of concrete instructions on how parents should resist and acquaint with them. As with many other things, early detection and early appropriate response are very important here. In this sense, we have quite a bit of work to do.
DEMOKRACIJA: How do you view the appointment of long-time LGBT activist Simon Maljevec from the Levica party to the post of Minister of Labour, Family, Social Affairs, and Equal Opportunities?
Primc: I know him from the campaign for the family referendum in 2012 and 2015. To put it mildly, he did not know about the legal regulation of family relations at that time. Whether he has learned anything since 2015, I do not know because I have not kept track of what he is doing. My principle is to give people a chance to prove themselves. We will quickly see in which direction they will take the matter. Given that the coalition agreement no longer mentions some of the demands of the LGBTQ+ lobby, e.g., the abolition of marriage between a wife and a husband, the adoption of children into homosexual relations, the requirement for artificial insemination without a father, etc., these contents are probably hidden in the provision that they will consistently implement the decisions of the Constitutional Court. Apparently, they already know how the Constitutional Court will decide in these cases. This, if it proves to be, is another scandal more in this case.
DEMOKRACIJA: The education system is one, but these days we can see that LGBT content is also being imposed on children through cartoons and various “family” movies. One such example is a Disney production. How to resist the topic?
Primc: Disney’s production, especially in the last 10 years, as well as before, is imbued with sophisticated LGBTQ+ propaganda. Recently, direct political activism of LGBTQ+ has been going on in the USA. If you see anything on television from a recent production of this media house, there is certainly LGBTQ+ propaganda inside, because that is their official definition. Watch TV with children, although of course it is best to keep it to a minimum. But when that does not work, use parental controls to prevent children from watching TV programmes that often play their products. When children watch television, they are not safe from manipulation even in children’s programmes. We need to be aware of this. What is the worst is that things are so well done that they attract children and subtly instil in them their evil ideology.
DEMOKRACIJA: Can we then say that prevention is better than cure?
Primc: Of course. Any child who succumbs to this ideology and goes down the path of gender reassignment, which includes changing emotions, behaviours, hormone therapies, etc., is too much. These matters are not immeasurable stress only for children, but for whole families.
DEMOKRACIJA: Is there a cure for brainwashing at all?
Primc: Of course. Engagement and conversation with children, family connection, inclusion of children in family work and projects, etc. We need to know that if we (parents) do not take care of our children, someone else will. Children want upbringing and all kinds of growth, so if they are not offered this by their parents or family, educational and developmental patterns will be sought elsewhere. Some time ago, someone told me that it is not the amount of family relationships that matters, but the quality. I would say, however, that quantity is a big part of quality. This way, too absent parents can take comfort. Time needs to be taken for children. Do you remember Šifrar? This is even more important for children than for friends. With all due respect to friends.
DEMOKRACIJA: Will this intrusion ever end?
Primc: They will not stop on their own. They will have to be stopped. Until we stop them, they will just be even more radical and invent even crazier things. The next key opportunity will be the 2026 elections. We need to prepare well for these elections and win them. We already have presidential and local elections this year, and European elections next year. All these elections are very important and at the same time the preparation of the starting point for the 2026 National Assembly elections. I invite all readers to become socially active. We have quite a few activities in the plan, and I already invite you to respond to the invitations and events that we will organise. Keep your head up. Keep going forward!
DEMOKRACIJA: If we look in the nearby neighbourhood. In a recent referendum, Hungarian voters rejected the presence of LGBT content in schools and exposing minors to such content in the media with more than 90 percent of the vote. Is this something we can expect in Slovenia as well?
Primc: In these respects, Slovenia is far behind Hungary, which responds preventively to the penetration of the LGBTQ+ ideology into all walks of life. As you know, they protected the marriage of one woman and one man with constitution. Even LGBTQ+ ideologies will not be let into schools. You know how the Romans said: Resist in the beginning. Otherwise, evil grows and is much harder to stop.
