The left-wing non-governmental organisation, the Institute of the 8th of March (Inštitut 8. Marec), has very little to do with objectivity, which, however, is something that one would expect from a publicly funded NGO. And yet, they continue to go against these reasonable expectations with all of their actions. Now, in light of the upcoming parliamentary elections, they have begun to address Slovenian consuls in order to get them to help spread the word about the upcoming elections and encourage the citizens to take part in them.
“We are writing to you because we want to increase the participation in the Slovenian elections to the National Assembly, which will happen on the 24th of April. We would like to ask you to please help us spread the news about the elections and encourage Slovenian citizens to take part in the elections, as, unfortunately, in recent years, we have had a low turnout in elections in our country, they wrote in the introduction, adding that they are now trying to change that.
According to the Institute of the 8th of March, casting a vote in the upcoming elections is essential for a healthy democracy, and it also enables us to build a better and brighter future. According to its representatives, the Institute has decided to launch a “Let’s go to the polls” campaign, with which they will encourage people to take part in the elections. “We are sending detailed instructions for voting from abroad in the attachments. We ask you to please share the instructions with your members and encourage them to partake in the election. We would like to get your e-mail, so you can access the file,” they wrote, adding that they would like to everyone for their help in advance. What would be really interesting to know is where they got the idea for this from and, of course, where did they get the e-mail addresses in question.
It is known that the parties of the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition (meaning, the left-wing part of the current opposition) – the List of Marjan Šarec, the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD), the Left party (Levica) and the Party of Alenka Bratušek, support the bill, with which the Institute of the 8th of March seeks to eliminate the harmful policy interventions of the current government “in one fell swoop.” According to the Institute, this is a law that has been in the making for the last few months and is supposed to eliminate “in one fell swoop the many harmful legislative changed adopted during this parliamentary term.” Among other things, they want to reduce the influence of politics on schools, restore the independence of public prosecutors, and take away the opportunity from the Ministry of Culture to decide arbitrarily on the allocation of public funds.
The coalition has revealed that this is obviously a pre-election campaign
As the coalition dared to express doubts regarding the proposal, written in the Institute of the 8th of March’s proposed law, according to which all citizens would have to return the tourist vouchers and financial aid given to them as part of the anti-corona legislative packages, the Institute of the 8th of March then responded by saying that these expressed doubts are “a dirty discrediting propaganda of the worst kind.” They added that the authorities obviously underestimate the citizens and think that people can easily be manipulated. It is undoubtedly interesting that they also announced that they would travel around Slovenia on the weekends and organise local campaigns in order to collect signatures for the law.
It is also worth pointing out once again that the Institute of the 8th of March, which began its journey as a non-governmental organisation that highlighted the issues of women, but has transformed into a left-wing political activist group in recent years, launched its latest election campaign on the social network TikTok, with the intention of inviting young people to participate in the upcoming elections. The campaign is taking place on TikTok, under the hashtag “#potrebninovevlade” (the translation of this could be “in need of a new government,” or “horny for a new government,” as the verb “potreben” is used in Slovenian to indicate that you need something and that you are horny), and according to the latest data, various videos filmed by young people who use this hashtag have gotten 1.4 million views already.
By conducting election campaigns and distributing leaflets, the Institute of the 8th of March is carrying out political propaganda in favour of the members of the Constitutional Arch Coalition and other left-wing select few. What a “coincidence” that all of this is happening just before the election. Obviously, the agitation at home is not enough for the Institute, so now they are trying to also get in touch with consuls around the world, who could inform Slovenians abroad about the Institute’s objective content, with the intention of getting them to vote for the left-wing option. Since we are very interested in knowing who authorised them for this kind of agitation around the world, we decided to send a journalistic question to the Institute and ask them about it. We will update the readers as soon as we receive a response.
Sara Kovač
