“In Slovenia, there is currently a rather dirty and probably illegal election campaign going on, which is led by some associations, groups and non-governmental organisations, namely, for the so-called Constitutional Arch Coalition parties, or the entire left-wing politically oriented bloc of parties,” an expert in the field of body language and communication, Edvard Kadič, commented on what is currently going on in our country. With this, he was mostly referring to the Voice of the People movement (Glas ljudstva). Namely, the List of Marjan Šarec (LMŠ), the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD), the Party of Alenka Bratušek (SAB) and the Left party (Levica) all support the bill which would eliminate all (supposedly) harmful policy interventions of the current government “in one fell swoop,” which was proposed by the Institute of the 8th of March (Inštitut 8. Marec), according to the MMC web portal. In recent days, the Institute has been spreading the ideas of power centres throughout Slovenia. However, the coalition parties have been warning that this is nothing but an election campaign.
In the United States of America, special legislation specifies the ways in which funds can be raised for political campaigns, but there are also very strict restrictions on the use of these funds. However, in our country, the left-wing non-governmental organisations use the same strategies, but without restrictions and with money from the energy sector. “For a better understanding of what is happening, I would like to point out that in the United States, for example, special legislation specifies the role of such direct election campaigns,” said Edvard Kadič, a communication expert, adding that this is a matter of regulating the operation of special electoral bodies, which is called the “Political Activity Committee” in the United States, or PAC and SuperPAC, and the central element of control is, of course, the financial flow.
In these regulated entities, funds are collected, which are then directly and carefully monitored to support the selected political parties and candidates (PAC format) or to support an individual political option and not specific individuals (SuperPAC). In Slovenia, however, various organisations, groups and non-governmental organisations use the same strategies, meaning conducting an election campaign, but without an exact addressee or party, and without restriction, as our legislation does not even deal with such cases. “We are, of course, talking about the question of who is financing the tour and all the promotional activities of the “Voice of the People” (Glas Ljudstva) group, as well as the Fridays’ political cyclists, with all their props, banners, and so on, or who is financing the extremely inappropriate TikTok campaign #PotrebniNoveVlade ” (the translation of this could be “in need of a new government,” or “horny for a new government,” as the word “potreben” is used in Slovenian to indicate that you need something and that you are horny), and the like,” Kadič added.
Such behaviour puts those who respect the electoral law in a disadvantaged position
Kadič also explained that unregulated legislation in this area allows for some companies to channel their funds in the form of various overpaid or maybe even obscure projects to an association, just to “park” their money there, in order to support a particular candidate or party, and the selected association then pays for promoters, advertising space, requisites, and even activists online, who lead various campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites, with this money. This is especially controversial when it comes to state-owned companies, as suddenly, everyone is financing one person’s campaign. “Such behaviour puts those who respect the electoral law and finance their election campaigns within the limits of what is permissible, in a disadvantaged position,” Kadič added.
Certain information appeared on social networks – as well as in the Democracy (Demokracija) magazine – that the Slovenian left-wing non-governmental organisations are being funded by various foreign foundations, which are also the main financiers of the left-wing groups in individual countries. The same applies to the Institute of the 8th of March, for which we recently reported that, according to the web application Erar, it is not receiving state money for its operating. However, in an interview, the members of the Institute complimented themselves on working with the Planned Parenthood Foundation and the Guerrilla Foundation. Namely, Planned Parenthood is an American non-profit organisation that fights for the “reproductive rights,” or, in other words, for the right to abortion, which, of course, plays an important role in the feminist movements, such as the Institute of the 8th of March, Democracy writes. Meanwhile, the Guerilla Foundation sponsors and funds various Antifa, feminist and anarchist movements around the world.
The “centres of power” found that they are not powerful enough – that is why they need the help of the NGOs (and the media)
Prime Minister Janez Janša said some time ago that this is the most massive violation of legislation related to election campaigns in the history of Slovenia. He wrote the following on Twitter: “Nobody represents all of the citizens. Or everyone’s voice. Not even the Institute of the 8th of March. This is the known, arrogant language of the authoritarians. However, in a democracy, anyone can choose who they want to vote for in the elections – freely. It depends on the number of received votes which parties or individuals will have what amount of power in representing the people.”
The Institute of the 8th of March, which is also on the list of the “Voice of the People”(Glas ljustva) initiative, wrote to the Prime Minister in its reply that he had once again proved that he is not a democrat and that he is not able to respond without discrediting and spreading lies. “Since the beginning of our operating, we have not received a single cent from the state, nor have we applied for any funds, and we cover the costs of the campaign with small donations of five, ten, 20 euros,” they explained.
But even if we leave all of the aforementioned organisations aside – as we all know that the bill always comes eventually – we should also not forget that the new face of the left, Robert Golob, announced some time ago that he would donate the full amount of his reward to these organisations. For a smart person, that is enough information to clearly see what is going on.
Sara Bertoncelj
