Legal activist Vili Kovačič, the Slovenian TIGR – the 13th of May association, the Taxpayers Never Give Up association, and the civil initiative DEM – for the democracy of equal opportunities, have sent an open letter to the members of European Parliament, protesting the debate in the European Parliament, which was held after the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affair’s mission to Slovenia. In the letter, the authors called on the MEPs to send another EU delegation to visit Slovenia again and carefully investigate the situation in the judiciary.
“The failed visit of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affair’s mission to Slovenia, will, unfortunately, be recorded in the history of the EU parliamentarism as an extreme ideological inquisition, which had no intention of actually helping Slovenia, but instead wanted to discredit it and escalate the chaos, which can only result in an even deeper division among Slovenians and even more street riots,” reads the letter that was sent to the Members of European Parliament. It was written by the signatories Vili Kovačič, the Slovenian TIGR – the 13th of May association (TIGR, an abbreviation for Trieste, Istria, Gorizia and Rijeka, was a militant anti-fascist organisation that fought against the fascist Italianisation of the Slovenian and Croat people, which was active between 1927 and 1941), the Taxpayers Never Give Up association (“Davkoplačevalci se ne damo” in Slovenian), and the civil initiative DEM – for the democracy of equal opportunities (“civilna iniciativa DEM – za demokracijo enakih možnosti” in Slovenian).
“In light of the debate and decisions made by the EU Parliament regarding the state of the media and democracy in Slovenia, we want to express our astonishment and indignant protest against the actions of liberals, greens, socialists and others, who unanimously repeated unargued condemnations against the Republic of Slovenia and its government, without any real intentions of actually learning about the real state of affairs,” the authors wrote in their letter.
The vanity of MEPs is leading to the collapse of the European civilisation
The signatories of the open letter warn that the fatal exclusionism of MEPs “does not lead to progress, as you like to call it, but to the collapse of democracy. With the latest new attempts to censor Christianity and natural gender identity, it might even lead to the collapse of European civilisation.”
Kovačič and the other authors also pointed out that there is no dictatorship in Slovenia, but that unsubstantiated accusations could actually lead to a dictatorship, as their purpose is to overthrow the executive branch in a non-parliamentary way, “by using the power of the street and exacerbating dissatisfaction.” Kovačič points out that such an approach was also used by Slobodan Milošević in the former Yugoslavia. The authors of the letter also pointed out that Europe is not a federation, but a union of equal sovereign states, and Slovenia has no problems with the executive but with the judicial branch of the government.
Problems with the judiciary
“We would like to draw your attention to the cases of Ivan Kramberger, Depala vas, Patria and Franc Kangler; the attacks on journalists – like the one on Miro Petek, and even the physical attacks during last year’s protests. However, the worst thing happening to us is the crime in courtrooms – the “substitute killer” Dr Milko Novič, intimidation of an honest judge Zvjezdan Radonjić, and the incredible lightness of the trial with the production of other substitute killers. Not to mention the laundering of one billion dollars of Iranian money. Another dark stain on the judiciary’s reputation is the many electoral frauds in the 2009 parliamentary elections and the 2018 local elections in Ljubljana, which the judiciary and prosecutors either avoid or refuse to prosecute. And there is also the fact that even electoral disputes have been dragging on for years. They do not want and must not work on these cases because these frauds and those who committed them are systemically inviolable,” the letter reads.
“Slovenians, who suffered under three totalitarianisms and were the first rebels against fascism in the years between 1920 and 1943 – before any other nation in Europe even knew anything about it – will always and everywhere, despite being a small nation, reject lies and propaganda constructs that are trying to destabilise and destroy the barely acquired minimal level of democracy,” the authors wrote.
Slovenia is not a Dutch colony
The signatories of the open letter sent to the Members of Parliament also pointed out that they “refuse to listen to lectures about democracy by the representatives of the Dutch state, as this is a country where journalists are being shot in the street, and unfortunately also the country which is indirectly to blame for the genocide in Srebrenica and the bloody massacre in the Balkans. Slovenia is not a Dutch colony, nor the testing ground for testing the limits of democracy and experimenting with decadent theories and ideologies.”
We are publishing the open letter that was sent to Members of European Parliament in its entirety below:
“A PROTEST AND AN INVITATION TO A NEW MISSION!
Dear Members of the EU Parliament!
In light of the debate and decisions made by the EU Parliament regarding the state of the media and democracy in Slovenia, we want to express our astonishment and indignant protest against the actions of liberals, greens, socialists and others, who unanimously repeated unargued condemnations against the Republic of Slovenia and its government, without any real intentions of actually learning about the real state of affairs in our country. The debate you led after your visit to Slovenia was incredibly biased and even below the level of the opposition in our Slovenian National Assembly. It was not based on facts but rather on lies and instigation, which is causing further division, not only in Slovenia but in Europe as a whole. Unfortunately, the failed visit of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affair’s (LIBE) mission to Slovenia will be recorded in the history of the EU parliamentarism as an extreme ideological inquisition, which had no intention of actually helping Slovenia, but instead wanted to discredit it and escalate the chaos, which can only result in an even deeper division among Slovenians and even more street riots.
We never imagined that such a low, primitive, and excluding way of debate is possible in the highest temple of the EU democracy, which does nothing to dignify the well-paid professional political elite you represent, which values itself and declares itself progressive, but has actually turned out to be nothing more than a reactionary platform, far from what it declares itself to be. This is a fateful exclusion that was once, three-quarters of a century ago, described by the famous economist and sociologist, Nobel laureate August Friedrich von Hayek, in his book THE FATAL CONCEIT. And this does not lead to progress, as you call it, but to the collapse of democracy. With the latest new attempts to censor Christianity and natural gender identity, it might even lead to the collapse of European civilisation.
Let’s make one thing clear: there is no dictatorship in Slovenia, but what is leading us to a DICTATORSHIP are unsubstantiated accusations that are bringing down the executive branch in a non-parliamentary way, with the help of the street and the potentiation of dissatisfaction – using the same tactics as Slobodan Milošević used in the former Yugoslavia. That is why we once again call on the EU Parliament to take action against such undemocratic outbursts of trying to bring down not just Slovenian, but any democratic government, in a way that represents direct interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state! Europe is not a federation, but, according to the provisions of the accession treaties, it is a union of equal sovereign states, of which Slovenia has a very big problem – not with the executive branch, but with the judiciary, which is using non-public court hearings even in the 21st century and is resolutely resisting public scrutiny at the same time.
Dear Members of the European Parliament, due to all of the above, we urge you to send another delegation of the EU Parliament to visit Slovenia and carefully investigate the situation in the judiciary in a way that will truly justify the delegation’s visit. At this point, we would like to draw your attention to the cases of Ivan Kramberger, Depala vas, Patria and Franc Kangler; the attacks on journalists – like the one on Miro Petek, and even the physical attacks during last year’s protests. However, the worst thing happening to us is the crime in courtrooms – the “substitute killer” Dr Milko Novič, intimidation of an honest judge Zvjezdan Radonjić, and the incredible lightness of the trial with the production of other substitute killers. Not to mention the laundering of one billion dollars of Iranian money. Another dark stain on the judiciary’s reputation is the many electoral frauds in the 2009 parliamentary elections and the 2018 local elections in Ljubljana, which the judiciary and prosecutors either avoid or refuse to prosecute. And there is also the fact that even electoral disputes have been dragging on for years. They do not want and must not work on these cases because these frauds and those who committed them are systemically inviolable. And, of course, this is far from being all of our problems; it is just a brief introduction to all of the undemocratic conditions and practices in the Slovenian prosecution and judiciary.
Dear MEPs, you have been presented with a completely distorted picture of the situation in Slovenia: seemingly independent media outlets – such as the national RTVSLO and Slovenian Press Agency, as well as the leading printed media – the newspapers Delo, Večer and Dnevnik, do not serve democracy and the public, but the non-governmental TYCOONS who control the media scene. There is no government dictatorship in Slovenia; instead, CENSORSHIP is at work, with the active help of those who lost power “by accident” in 2020 and are now exporting “their revolution” and trying to convince Brussels and the EU that some sort of threat to democracy is currently present in Slovenia. Democracy here is not threatened by the government but by the judiciary and the prosecution.
Dear Members of the European Parliament, elected representatives of the people of all EU Member States!
We call on the European Parliament to reject the LIBE report, which is extremely biased, and to establish a new commission with a new delegation, composed in a democratic way, in a balanced, plural way. A delegation that will search for the truth and not arbitrarily construct it. We call on the leadership of the EU Parliament to publish our protest in the form of a petition on the official website of the EU Parliament, in the Politico newspaper, as well as in the Official Journal of the European Union. In short, we urge you to tackle the real problems of democracy and help solve Slovenia’s biggest problem – the judiciary and the unbalanced media landscape. The atmosphere of mistrust and division is being caused by unreliable missions, not the current Slovenian government, which gained legitimacy in the elections. We also call on you to support the digital transformation of the judiciary, which is resolutely resisting the scrutiny and digital presence of the public in the public courtrooms.
On behalf of the democratic Slovenian public, we call on the European Parliament to retake this “exam.” Despite the failed EU parliamentary mission, we have not yet lost our hope for a legal and fairer society, which we can also secure with the help of the EU institutions. The condition for this is that you end the ideological war at the behest of the handicapped Slovenian opposition, which is unable to bear its loss of power – which did not happen because of the current Slovenian government, but because of the opposition’s own disunity and incompetence.
Dear Members of the European Parliament. We urge you to set up a new commission and a new delegation and send it to Slovenia without any pre-determined positions. We cannot agree to methods of pogrom and evasion of facts simply because facts do not live up to expectations. We will be glad to present many unknown facts and records in our conversation. We want transparency, and we are at your disposal anywhere and anytime. We suggest that we meet with the new democratic delegation as soon as possible, and no later than January, in the house of the European Union in Ljubljana.
Slovenians, who suffered under three totalitarianisms and were the first rebels against fascism in the years between 1920 and 1943 – before any other nation in Europe even knew anything about it – will always and everywhere, despite being a small nation, reject lies and propaganda constructs that are trying to destabilise and destroy the barely acquired minimal level of democracy. And we refuse to listen to lectures about democracy by the representatives of the Dutch state, as this is a country where journalists are being shot in the street, and unfortunately also the country which is indirectly to blame for the genocide in Srebrenica and the bloody massacre in the Balkans. Slovenia is not a Dutch colony nor the testing ground for testing the limits of democracy and experimenting with decadent theories and ideologies. We believe that Sophie in’t Veld’s actions do not enjoy the support of the majority in the EU Parliament, and therefore urge you to send a credible and impartial mission to Slovenia.
Vili Kovačič, citizen K.,
Slovenian TIGR – the 13th of May association,
Taxpayers Never Give Up association,
civil initiative DEM – for the democracy of equal opportunities
Na Straški vrh 26, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija tel: 00386 40 203-524″
Ivan Šokić
