By: Mitja Grmovšek
We talked with the MP of the Slovenian Democratic Party Mojca Škrinjar about current socio-political events in Slovenia. As Škrinjar is from Ljubljana and a municipal councillor of the City of Ljubljana, we first talked to her about the Slovenian capital, where she has lived since birth.
Biography
Mojca Škrinjar was born in Ljubljana. She is a professor of English and German with literature. She graduated from the 2nd high school in Ljubljana. She was initially an English teacher at the Majda Vrhovnik Primary School and the Nove Jarše Primary School. Among other things, she was the director of the Spodnja Šiška Primary School, the director general of the directorate for kindergartens and primary education at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, and the state secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. She was also the director of the Institute for Education, Rehabilitation and Training Kamnik. She is currently a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia.
DEMOKRACIJA: Mrs. Škrinjar, we know you as a Ljubljana woman. What is it that convinces you in the capital of Slovenia not to go elsewhere?
Škrinjar: I was born in Ljubljana, and I have lived here all the time. I am home here. I am very attached to the place. It is the city of my ancestors, I like the most beautiful bogs in the world, a green, calm river, slender bridges over it, I like to climb Šmarna gora and embrace Ljubljana. I love to travel, but I feel best here.
DEMOKRACIJA: Do you think that Ljubljana, as the capital and the largest Slovenian city, is given more attention than other cities in Slovenia?
Škrinjar: Not at all. Ljubljana deserves this attention, it has even received too little of it in the past, I think. But the current government has allocated a lot of money to it this time, the most so far. However, it seems to me that things in our country are too centralised in the capital. I think that given the current situation and the expected development of digitalisation, we should place parts of the state administration in different parts of Slovenia and thus ensure a more even regional development and less pressure on Ljubljana. I am thinking of the reduction in personal traffic and, consequently, cleaner air.
DEMOKRACIJA: You are a great patriot, a great advocate of the Slovene language, culture, and Slovene heritage. Is there too little emphasis on all this in Slovenia?
Škrinjar: On average, Slovenia takes good care of its cultural heritage, but there are some skyrocketing examples of neglect. In Ljubljana, the Plečnik Stadium is a sad example of decay. This is collapsing due to a wrong decision more than a decade ago, which foresaw the closure of the stadium into a huge glass complex that would completely destroy the appearance of Plečnik’s work, and an additional aggravation would be the erection of a huge skyscraper in the immediate vicinity and the extension of business and trade work. In this case, it was a horrible circumvention of the current law, as it follows that nothing should destroy the appearance and impression of a cultural object, and in the submitted project this was planned so that Plečnik’s Stadium would be completely lost. The decay of the former Ljubljana landmark, hotel and café Bellevue in Tivoli is also painful. Twenty years ago, you could eat an excellent cake on the terrace of the café and enjoy the view of Šiška, Tivoli, but today you are in danger of stepping past the most neglected part of Ljubljana, burnt, decaying buildings with surroundings, full of rotting garbage.
A person also gets goose bumps when Bloudek’s Ilirija swimming pool is being renovated, which promises to be a renovation of the Plečnik’s Stadium type and literally a tsunami through Rožna dolina, where typical old-fashioned villas are being demolished and modern cubes are being built. I do not oppose modern, minimalist construction, I like it. But you cannot do that at the expense of monuments of architectural history! These modern cubes should find a place elsewhere in Ljubljana!
DEMOKRACIJA: What do you think should change to make young people more enthusiastic about their homeland?
Škrinjar: We are already doing something. Nova24TV and the Association for the Values of Slovenian Independence (VSO) prepared a quiz on knowledge of Slovenian history. We were enthusiastic about the knowledge of young people. However, we would like to see more such cutting-edge knowledge. The quiz will be repeated this year. Just like last year, there will be attractive prizes for the best competitors.
In any case, patriotism should be taught primarily by schools. This attitude at the moment depends on the good will of some principals and teachers and should be regulated systematically by including patriotism in the curricula of all the subjects they teach, as well as in study programmes for teacher education.
DEMOKRACIJA: What is your school system like in our country? Would you change it and how?
Škrinjar: Our school system is Franciscan. Franz Joseph was a great and knowledgeable ruler, but the system of that time needs to be upgraded. It would be necessary to develop problem-based learning, creative, innovative work in school. Flexible curricula need to be developed and teachers need to be guided towards good practice. During the crisis, I expected more innovative didactic practices to be developed. When teachers debate with students, they read their thoughts, not the answers to the questions. And, of course, the introduction of sequential assessment to allow the teacher to observe the student’s progress over a period of time and then assess it on the basis of notes. That assessment does not have the role of an administrative decision, but that it directs the student to further research and work.
That new schools should also be built spatially innovative with the possibility of flexible walls, mandatory school gardens, that significantly more lessons take place in nature, around the school.
DEMOKRACIJA: In your opinion, is it necessary for us to get rid of the communist system, which is still smouldering? And how?
Škrinjar: The communist system will largely fall with the aeration of the judiciary. More coincidence (allegedly inadequate Masleša’s diploma) than a systemic approach contributed to a more critical public view of the Slovenian judiciary. What is even more communist than totalitarian approaches – imprisoning innocent people, extreme arrogance, and violent communication in style we can do anything, and you can only suffer and hide?
Unfortunately, public RTV also contributed to the maintenance of totalitarianism, building the ivory tower of communication totalitarianism with its bias and exclusion of all non-leftists.
DEMOKRACIJA: You are a member of the National Assembly, a member of the SDS. How do your friends, acquaintances, neighbours, and the people of Ljubljana view your function?
Škrinjar: There was a period when the word SDS was insulting. During an election campaign, when I was wearing a T-shirt with this inscription, a cyclist followed me down the street and called “Janša’s”, then he looked at me and I recognised a former high school classmate, whom I had seen as a worthy gentleman. At the next graduation anniversary, he was embarrassed.
Friends accept each other as we are. They certainly support me, but sometimes they also make critical remarks, for which I am grateful. Neighbours and acquaintances have gotten used to me, as I have been involved in politics for a very long time.
DEMOKRACIJA: Are you also often a target of such and other attacks by the left political option?
Škrinjar: Above all, there are several insults. It is hard to imagine all sorts of swear words flying at us from the other end of Parliament Hall. But there were also physical attacks in front of parliament. I was verbally attacked by a protester who physically ran into me, and they spat on other MPs. But that is nothing compared to when they attacked the parliament building with granite blocks and Molotov cocktails in the autumn, while a few of us MPs and invited guests were trapped in the building. We were happy when the police rescued us.
DEMOKRACIJA: Which other parliamentary group do you get along with best?
Škrinjar: I am a member of the committees on education, culture, health, and foreign affairs. In addition to my colleagues, I spend most of my time with the MPs who are members of these committees. I get along well with everyone. But I love most colleagues from my party. Without exception, they are all fantastic people, dedicated, hardworking, smart, and kind. I am proud to be part of this team. We share many similar thoughts with Ivo Dimic, NSi, chairwoman of the education committee, and I admire the style of Monika Gregorčič from the party Konkretno, her attitude, knowledge, leadership of the foreign policy committee. I am also very close on educational topics to Mateja Udovč, who is now a member of the non-parliamentary party Naša dežela.
I must say that I can also be kind and professional with some of the members of the opposition. But this is much less than in the coalition.
DEMOKRACIJA: You are also a candidate for MP in this year’s elections. What will you be most committed to? What are your plans?
Škrinjar: Above all, I will advocate for freedom of speech, women’s rights, balanced regional development of Slovenia, free entrepreneurship, construction of housing, kindergartens, schools, homes for the elderly, establishment of a new, fourth university, education for Slovenian culture and patriotism, creativity, and innovation in schools and of course for my beloved Ljubljana. That we will be able to live not only in the preserved cultural heritage, but also in a healthy city. Until the end, I will oppose the sewerage system that Mayor Janković wants to build from Vodice and Medvode to the treatment plant in Ljubljana through the lake of drinking water that Ljubljana men and women drink. The risk of the line starting to leak is too great. I will also advocate for decentralisation, as Ljubljana is congested with traffic. Let Ljubljana become a home, healthy and beautiful, where we will live safely and happily.
DEMOKRACIJA: What assessment would you give to the government led by Janez Janša?
Škrinjar: Above all, this government successfully transported us through the second most difficult period of Slovenia, through the coronavirus pandemic. However, there were too many victims. I attribute all this to some incompetent governments in the past, which have earmarked 70 million euros for studies on homes and built none. The elderly in the homes quickly became infected from each other due to overcrowding. Above all, I resent the left-wing parties that incited violent protests and the public RTV that unconditionally promoted them.
This government is the best thing that has happened to us since the independence. It is a sign of sobriety, of the judgment that the government is not for itself, but for the people. It has done a lot for all generations – for young people by building housing, kindergartens, and schools, with new enrolment places in high schools and universities, for the elderly with long-term care and better pensions, for all of us by modernising infrastructure, roads, railways, funds to build homes for the elderly and hospitals, a means to increase the safety of us all. In one of the worst periods, the government worked so that the country emerged from the crisis stronger, with greater economic growth, with the highest employment, excellent security. And all this in just two years during the catastrophic pandemic, and while chairing the EU Council very successfully. Hats off!