On Saturday, the traditional meeting of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) Committees at the Bovec Airport marked the start of the 28th SDS Summer Camp and Dr Henrik Tuma Mountaineering Club, which will take place this year from the 22nd of July to the 5th of August 2023.
The gathered were also addressed by the leader of the opposition and SDS party President Janez Janša, who highlighted, in particular, the wrong decisions of the current government, the crisis of values in Slovenian society, and the attack on freedom of speech being carried out by the current government.
At the beginning of his speech, Janša, as the keynote speaker, expressed his disappointment that the good work of the parties in the SDS-led government coalition that was in power during the COVID-19 pandemic did not lead to a second mandate in the last national elections. Although the SDS party improved in terms of votes and the number of MPs, the coalition partners – the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (Demokratska stranka upokojencev Slovenije – DeSUS) and the Modern Centre Party (Stranka modernega centra – SMC), which he said had been brutally attacked and destroyed by their political opponents, did not manage to get into the National Assembly.
Janša said that, in his assessment, the Slovenian political space is one where a fair political contest is impossible. Regarding the work of the current government, he said that they were still waiting for good initiatives from the government. He was critical of the establishment of strategic councils on nutrition and on the prevention of hate speech. He stressed that such councils were dangerous for freedom of speech, as they were supposed to decide what could and could not be said.
“All we got was a Council for Hate Speech, but it was made up of people who called you scum when you were protesting in court against the staged Patria story. Today, these people are deciding what you can and cannot say against the government,” Janša stressed.
Janša described freedom of speech as crucial for the functioning of democracy but warned that many people today are not sufficiently aware that this freedom is under threat.
He also pointed out that the SDS party is a party of values, which its representatives defend when they are part of the government coalition, as well as when they are part of the government opposition.
Left-wing NGOs get funding; infrastructure is neglected
The current government is making budget cuts in strategic infrastructure projects, Janša warned. The ski resort Kanin, for example, is among the projects that are being starved of money. In the last year, budget cuts have been made in infrastructure projects, while it has never been a problem to find funding for left-wing NGOs. However, it was the people who helped after this year’s storms or last year’s fire in the Karst region that did more good than NGOs, Janša pointed out.
“The SDS party has come a long way, and its path began even before Slovenia’s independence. We dreamt of an independent Slovenia, we won it, and we have always fought for it. Ours is a path of many victories and defeats and also a path of lessons. We have learnt a lot. We must be patient until the moment when it is possible to build a strong coalition that will take Slovenia back on the path we voted for in the plebiscite. We will not have to wait very long for that,” said Janša.
In the second part of his speech, Janša spoke about the state of values in Slovenia. He pointed out that blatant lies and untruths are sold as mainstream, and people are expected to accept them, otherwise, they will be labelled as unfashionable, narrow-minded, unsympathetic and uncooperative. He warned of the dangers of this trend and called for awareness of the issue, which he called “common sense”. He also called on individuals to alert others to this danger.
“There are only two genders”
In his speech, Janša also touched on gender theory (the radical left-wing ideology that gender is a social construct) and pointed to some of those present who wore T-shirts with the slogan “There are only two genders.”
“We need a coalition of common sense. I see some young people at the table wearing the ‘There are only two genders’ T-shirts. If someone had told me 10 years ago that we would have to wear a T-shirt saying that, I would have thought that they had had a few too many drinks. Today, however, this is actually necessary, and apparently, this is not the last such statement. Soon, we will obviously also have to start wearing signs that says, ‘the sun shines during the day and the moon shines at night’,” Janša joked.
He also touched on the elections to the European Parliament that are coming up in less than a year’s time, saying that the party would prepare the best candidate list so far. In the run-up to the elections, he said, they must first and foremost strengthen their membership, especially in the ranks of the Slovenian Democratic Youth (Slovenska demokratska mladina – SDM), the youth wing of the party, which should not be seen as competition by the older members of the party.
The camp participants were also welcomed by the Mayor of Bovec, Valter Mlekuž, SDS MP and Vice President of the National Assembly, Danijel Krivec, and the President of the Dr Henrik Tuma Mountaineering Club, Anton Žunter. Mayor Mlekuž called on all those gathered at the event to do everything in their power to obtain state funding for the construction of the new Kanin cable car.
The camp will offer a range of activities
On Sunday, a pilgrimage of the mountaineers and the SDS Christian Forum to Trenta was held, where a Holy Mass was also held in the Church of St Joseph in the village of Soča. Meanwhile, Sunday afternoon was dedicated to kayaking school.
During the first week of the camp, participants will also climb Planina za Slapom, Planina Zapotok and Planina Lemovje above Soča, go rafting, kayaking, learn rock climbing and bivouac in nature.
During the second week of the camp, the participants will go on a traditional mountain hike to the cross at mountain Škrlatica (2740 m), have fun rafting, explore indigenous peoples in Slovenia and search for Slovenian roots. On Friday, the 4th of August, they will climb up to the hut at Dolič (2151 m) and then on Saturday, the 5th of August, they will finish the day with the traditional climb to Triglav (2864 m).
Andrej Žitnik
