The mayor of the municipality of Radenci, Roman Leljak, reminded of the event from 2015, when he should have been questioned. He refused to be questioned because the police station had a picture of a former long-time Yugoslav dictator under the former regime, Josip Broz Tito, hanging on its premises. Leljak recently achieved the withdrawal of the name Tito’s street in Radenci, which caused a severe revolt of the local Radenci leftist scene.
The debate on totalitarian symbols has been going on in Slovenia for a long time. The spring political side has repeatedly publicly rejected and condemned Nazism, fascism and communism, and advocated a ban on all totalitarian symbols in Slovenia. A bigger problem is the Slovene left wing political pole, which is still defending the legacy of the former regime.
For a long time, representatives of the left political pole have not found it problematic for judges, teachers or some police officers to present themselves publicly in caps and T-shirts with a red star. The left wing parliamentary parties in the National Assembly also do not want to adopt a resolution of the Council of Europe condemning fascism, Nazism and communism. Despite several attempts, the resolution was still not adopted in the Slovenian Parliament. We should not be surprised by it because the SD president Tanja Fajon proudly bows in front of the statue of the communist criminal Boris Kidrič.
The mayor of Radenci, Leljak, refused to testify because Tito’s picture was hung in the police station. RTV Slovenia journalist Boris Vasev provoked Interior Minister Hojs!
The mayor of Radenci, Roman Leljak, published a part of the police report in which he did not want to attend the interrogation at the mentioned police station, because they had a picture of Tito hanging in it. The new conflict was once again tried to be caused by the journalist of MMC RTV Slovenia Boris Vasev, because he noticed the liking of the Minister of the Interior Aleš Hojs under Lejlak’s published message. Vasev was so delighted that now Interior Minister Hojs refuses to cooperate with the police. “Finally, an interior minister tailored to the anarchists,” Vasev added.
The Minister of the Interior, Aleš Hojs, has repeatedly exposed the manipulations of the central media to the Slovenian public. He clearly wrote that Tito’s painting had nothing to do in the police premises. Instead, a picture of the current president, Borut Pahor, could hang. Hojs concludes that the interrogations are conducted in rooms with the iconography of the state, not with images of dictators. “Your response is understandable, as you have not been able to go further than Tito mentally, perhaps because you are in Slovenia,” Hojs responded to Vasev’s remark.
Many former socialist republics are aware that communism was more evil than good. Due to the educational process in Slovenia, thanks to Slavko Gaber, the “dictatorship” of the dominant media is in the service of the former regime, which represents the period of communist Yugoslavia very romantically. They like to say that the victory of the partisans enabled the later independence of Slovenia, but they forget to mention the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs after the end of the First World War.
It seems that even after thirty years of the end of communism, many Slovenian citizens believe that a totalitarian regime is the solution for Slovenia. It is unfortunate that the undemocratic values of the former regime are being massively defended by some judges, police officers, teachers, politicians and representatives of the Seventh Force. Most of these representatives can be found on the left ideological pole. It is those who are now shouting that a dictatorship is being carried out in Slovenia.
Luka Perš
