Slovenia is currently being led by a “coalition with the civil society.” Prime Minister Robert Golob does not deny this coalition. On the contrary. Right after his election, he constantly referred to the “civil society” and the “coalition with the civil society,” and eagerly demonstrated the latter through various protocol receptions and photographs.
This means that the country is run by the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD), the Left party (Levica), and the well-known “civil society,” made up of former Friday cyclists with some accessories. We are therefore witnessing a Golob coalition with the so-called civil society, which is a European peculiarity.
Golob’s Freedom Movement is very close to a “front”
In an interview from months ago, the lawyer Professor Dr Andrej Fink already pointed this out, adding that Golob’s “movement” is very close to a “front”, which means that the former front is still dominant in Slovenia. “Thus, the same substance arc, though not a constitutional one, runs between the former vanguard (the Communist Party) and today’s heirs. This arc connects the former movement with today’s Movement – the former “freedom” with today’s Freedom. The formal avant-garde is gone, but the informal one remains. Today, we have the Movement + civil society + NGOs + the Socialist Association of the Working Class of Slovenia – SZDL (?). The left-wing parties have practically disappeared.” We are witnessing Golob’s coalition with the so-called civil society, which is unlike anything we have seen before in Europe.
In his commentary last November, entitled “We are faced with the almost complete hegemony of the transitional left,” the editor of the Demokracija magazine, Dr Metod Berlec, wrote: “It is obvious, then, that the transitional left is very well aware that in order to maintain hegemony in society, it is necessary to have both “political society”, i.e. the classical state, and the “civil society”, i.e. the so-called NGOs, in their hands. This is a network of institutions, organisations, institutes and associations that supposedly operate freely and independently. But in our country, all this has been turned upside down, because the ruling establishment has largely subordinated all this to itself. In order to maintain its hegemony in society, it lavishly finances the so-called civil society, or so-called NGOs (about which we wrote in detail in the main article), which are thus a transmission of the rulers. Subcontractors of the rulers. An ideological army. The striking fist of the left, which systematically takes on the centre-right opposition and demonises it. With our money.” And he then asked himself, “Until when?”
How much longer will we have to suffer the striking fist of the left and its demonisation?
That is the real question. The left’s striking fist continues its march and demonisation on behalf of the ruling class. And the characteristic of this is that none of them have measured their strength at the ballot box, and at the same time, they are setting themselves up as “representatives of the people.” Recently, doctors have come under attack. In this case, the Voice of the People initiative (Glas ljudstva), led by the director Jaša Jenull and Drnovšek’s former Minister of Health, Dušan Keber, is the striking fist.
Apparently, they do not like the so-called amphibian doctors (doctors who work in the public, as well as the private sector), as they put it, although Keber was one of the first and greatest “amphibian doctors.” In fact, in addition to his work as a doctor, he made a lot of money as a private individual from other doctors. And on the other hand, when it comes to Jenull, nobody actually has any idea where he is employed. In May 2008, he opened a sole proprietorship under the title Jaša Jenull – director. The status is still open, but there is no information on his business dealings in Ajpes, which means that he does not earn any significant income from this title. What he does for a living is, therefore, a question that has come up a lot in the public recently. This is also because information has emerged that the Jenull family often uses the services of private doctors, paying larger sums in cash. At the same time, Jenull is making a mockery of private healthcare and publicly shaming doctors.
Destroyers of health care, just like in the Chavez era
The Voice of the People initiative, of which Jaša Jenull is a prominent representative, is shaming doctors by calling them amphibians. Both Keber and Jenull claim that “amphibians are destroying public health” and refer to longer waiting times as being deliberately created (the doctors are to blame, of course). Jenull even went as far as to call Robert Golob to account. He also has the Health Minister Valentina Prevolnik Rupel practically on a leash. Meanwhile, the latter is about to leave Slovenia, as her husband, Tadej Rupel, was appointed ambassador to Spain under Golob’s government.
As for the state of healthcare, the following words from a doctor and professor at the Faculty of Medicine are very telling: “The state of public healthcare is almost impossible to compensate for anymore! The government inciting people against doctors is a tried and tested authoritarian method of destroying healthcare. The last person to successfully employ such a strategy was the Venezuelan dictator Chavez. This may be the current intention, too, to break up the healthcare service and privatise it, as the Slovenian economy has been privatised before by those in power. Patients and healthcare workers are natural allies, and it is important that society does not allow politically motivated bullying. Otherwise, tomorrow, when we are sick, we will have no one to turn to for help.”
MEP Dr Milan Zver’s comment: “We are witnessing the reawakening of the ‘street’, ‘assembly’ rule, to which representation means nothing”
Dr Milan Zver, politician, analyst and Member of the European Parliament, also commented on the matter, saying: “The 1980s were marked by the so-called leading idea of civil society, which, as a sphere beyond established structures, symbolised the struggle for a truly free society and for human dignity. It could be said that civil society at that time was still virginally genuine, independent of political power, although it cannot be said that it was not controlled by the Party and the State Security Administration (UDBA). I can confirm this from my experience of the peace movement. But the enthusiasm was great, despite the fear. Something great emerged from this nascent civil society.
Soon after the establishment of democracy and an independent state, the story turned on its head. Instead of the civil society living a full life, it became a vassal of the old political nomenclature. NGOs, as a rule, became a transmission of the old nomenclature. And that is still true today. From the very beginning, we taxpayers have been unwittingly funding far-left NGOs (non-governmental organisations) that align themselves with like-minded parties. The pattern is similar to what it was under socialism. The Party needed the workers’, youth and militants’ federations, and it ruled through them. Today, left-wing NGOs play an identical role – they are the extended arm of those who have political power. As I said, they co-rule, even though they were never elected. This goes along with the criticism of parties – of the partyocracy. In the 1990s, at the time of the Depala vas affair, Janez Janša called it a para-civil society. He could not have said it any better.
In established democracies, the elected rule. Even in the various subsystems of society, not just in politics. But we are witnessing the re-emergence of the ‘street’, ‘assembly’ rule, to which representation means nothing. It does not matter who they represent, as long as they are fulfilling a role for which they are well paid by domestic and foreign funders. We all know that the far left has its own views on democracy, like Putin or Xi Jinping – the Slovenian version of the Chinese boss. For now, they argue that hybrid systems with their services meet people’s needs better than complicated democratic systems. Well, given the way things are going here, I fear that the time of the ‘rule by the unelected’ is coming again. In fact, it’s already here!”
Marko Lotrič: “One of the main reasons why NGO members do not enter politics is to avoid responsibility”
Marko Lotrič, President of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia: “I want to mention the process of adopting the Labour Relations Act as a worrying way in which NGOs operate or exert their influence under the current government. The basic draft law was coordinated within a working group between employers, trade unions and the Ministry for more than half a year, which is necessary for laws that concern such a wide range of addressees. After all the work and the proposals made, many of which were not heard, the NGOs submitted their proposals to the National Assembly three days before the adoption of the law, without the employers’ side knowing anything about it. These proposals were approved by both the Government and the National Assembly. In this case, social dialogue lost out to the interests of a narrow group of people.
I believe that one of the main reasons why NGO members do not enter politics is to avoid accountability. When you are elected to a position, you are also responsible for your decisions and your work is sooner or later evaluated at the next elections. They have judged that it is easier for them to get involved in an election campaign and then, from behind the scenes, put pressure on the authorities while receiving budget money without having to be held accountable for anything. Of course, it should also be pointed out that not all NGOs operate in this manner – we all know which ones I am referring to…”
Igor Pirkovič, journalist and editor: “It is a fact that a part of NGOs in Slovenia is highly privileged. With the support of the media, which gave extensive coverage to their protests, actions and press conferences during the previous government, they contributed a significant share to the change of power. What the left-wing political parties could not do, the so-called NGOs did. This was also underlined by Robert Golob in a special thank-you note immediately after the elections. And so, the NGOs became allies of the government, and of course they started to bill the government for their past services. Tenders were issued, and money was distributed for the most bizarre purposes.
The self-proclaimed representatives of the people are motivated by budgetary resources. If the right wing comes to power, the way NGOs are rewarded may be overhauled, hence the eagerness to prevent this from happening. That is the only thing behind all of this. It is many of the NGOs who wave rainbow flags and Palestinian flags (there are hardly any proletarian flags anymore) and who like to swear by the values of an old system who are actually living the capitalist dream. In fact, outside formal politics, they have become the elite. They could even enter politics formally, but there are two reasons which incline them against it; they would have to take responsibility towards the electorate, and the budgetary privileges would be over.”
Zvone Černač, MP of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS): “Volunteers working through firefighting, sports, singing, charity and other associations represent an important added value for society. This can never be repaid or measured in money. These individuals do not even expect to be paid for their voluntary activities. The so-called NGOs, which have grown in numbers exponentially, especially since the adoption of the NGO law in 2017, are a different story altogether. Taxpayers can allocate a percentage of their income tax to voluntary and non-governmental organisations.
The people mostly donate these funds to fire brigades, Karitas, the Red Cross, and other associations working in the field of health and helping those in need due to health problems, and also to various sports, cultural and other associations, as well as political parties. Not all of them do that. This leaves around 12-15 million euros a year to be allocated. These funds, however, are not given to those who are recognised by the taxpayers as volunteers; instead, they are given to the so-called NGOs like Jaša Jenull, who represent the ultra-leftist political army, through a call for tenders such as the one that led to the resignation of the previous Minister for Public Administration, and the new call for tenders issued by the current Minister, Mr Props. Through the writing of various ‘studies’ and other unnecessary and useless activities, they acquire considerable resources which enable them to carry out various activities in support of the left-wing political option.”
The silent Minister of Health and the leaders of left-wing NGOs
We asked the Minister of Health, Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, for a comment on the fact that NGOs direct the work of the Health Ministry, and we also wanted to know why, as the Minister, she is allowing for attacks on doctors like those carried out by the Voice of the People initiative to happen, and why she does not protect doctors. By the time this article was published, we had not yet received a response. We also asked Goran Forbici, Director of the Umbrella Network of NGOs (CNVOS), and Katarina Bervar Sternad, Director of the Legal Centre for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (PIC), which advocates for illegal migrants, for their comments on NGOs as the striking fist of the current rulers, and we also wanted to know why NGOs do not enter politics. We had not received any replies by the time the article was published.
Vida Kocjan
