In a rather personal video, the director of the NGO the 8th of March Institute (Inštitut 8. marec) attacked the leader of the opposition when he announced the rehabilitation of convicted police officers. Janša later also added the disclosure of the US funding of the Institute in question as one of the goals of the next government.
In her usual “victim” style, Nika Kovač posted a longer video on Facebook, in which she lectured for a few minutes, and the President of the largest opposition party verbally demolished her in two sentences.
“The next government will investigate and, in cooperation with the US authorities, make public all financial transfers worth $40 million to the extreme leftists of the Voice of the People and the 8th of March Institute. Illegal funding of election and referendum campaigns from abroad will be investigated. The rule of law will be established, in which there will be no more first-class people,” Janez Janša responded to Nika Kovač on X.
Is punishing bullies a “threat” to Nika?
The 8th of March Institute announced Kovač’s message in a cynical style that is quite normal for them: “Today, after a long time, our Nika has a message for Janez Janša. She is responding to his post on the X network, in which, as always, when something is not right with him, he attacks others,” the Institute wrote. However, in the post to which Nika responded, he was not attacking anyone – but in spite of that, he was even accused by the Institute of being “threatening”. And what constitutes a “threat” to them? Janša’s announcement that “the Antifa terrorists and other perpetrators of violence at the 2020-2022 protests will be punished”.
For a democratic state with the rule of law, this is a perfectly rational, even expected announcement – that those who perpetrate violence will be punished – but not for the members of the 8th of March Institute and not for Nika Kovač, because in this case, the “thugs” are only part of a left-wing activist “conglomerate”, and how else can they protect them other than by directly attacking those who are opposed to them on social media – interestingly – at the very time of the protest that her “colleague” Jaša Jenull announced for Friday.
The problem of (non)transparency of information on how much public funding each NGO receives is indeed problematic.
On the 2nd of February 2025, there were 27,421 registered NGOs in Slovenia, including 23,147 associations, 4,008 (private) institutions and 266 foundations. This is 21 fewer than on the 5th of January 2025, when there were 27,442 NGOs registered, including 23,173 associations, 4,003 (private) institutions and 266 foundations. According to the website of the national NGO umbrella network CNVOS, project funds from the Slovenian budget amounted to 246,945.69 euros, with the number of NGOs increasing enormously every year.
People most often think of civil society in terms of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), but this definition is in some ways misleading. It is true that NGOs include associations such as the firefighters, cultural and humanitarian associations, most of which are funded by donations. However, we often forget that NGOs also include institutions – the umbrella network of Slovenian NGOs brings together more than 1,600 different associations, individual institutions and foundations. And in the case of some private institutions, it is well-known that they do very good “business” with the state.
A. H.
