Slovenian Deputy Prime Ministers Zdravko Počivalšek and Matej Tonin also expressed their support for an independent media investigation in Slovenia. “I second the call for action. If Brussels only has the (dis)information from one side, they cannot have a complete picture of the situation,” Počivalšek wrote, and Matej Tonin reminded everyone that “it is only the facts that count, everything else is just cheap political moves.”
The mainstream media in Slovenia mostly belong to the left-wing political pole, and they represent about ninety percent of the media space in Slovenia. And it is precisely through the media that the political class of the left controls Slovenia and takes care of its own capital interests. Last March, the puppet government of Marjan Šarec fell, and after almost ten years, a political turnaround happened, which was a shock for the holders of the exclusive right to power.
The left greeted the new government with all of its alliances in the international journalists’ associations. Politico journalist Lili Bayer’s badly prepared article was followed by some other comments by the influential European officials from the left. Thus, Guy Verhstead, a long-time leading European politician of the Liberals, Vera Jourova, vice-president of the European Commission, and Sophie In’t Veld, a Dutch MEP from the party that the former 24ur journalist Irena Joveva is also a member of, all commented on the current situation in Slovenian politics. Tanja Fajon also admitted on the show Tarča (Target) that after the publication of the Politico article, she spent hours with her political allies from the left. Prior to entering politics, she was a long-time correspondent from Brussels for RTV Slovenia.
An independent investigation is in everyone’s best interest – it would dispel any and all doubts, once and for all
Following a series of criticisms of the government at home and abroad, the Prime Minister invited the competent authorities to Slovenia – he invited them to take a week, in order to have a proper look at the actual situation in the field of the media and their freedom in Slovenia. Slovenian Deputy Prime Ministers Matej Tonin and Zdravko Počivalšek also joined the call for the European observers’ monitoring, via Twitter. President of the Nova Slovenija party and the current Minister of Defence Matej Tonin wrote that the Vice President of the European Commission Vera Jourova and the members of the European Parliament will find out the most if they send their own people to Slovenia, on a so-called fact-finding mission. Therefore, he proposed to the Prime Minister Janez Janša that the entire delegation should be invited to Slovenia by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia itself. “it is only the facts that count, everything else is just cheap political moves,” Tonin pointed out.
President of the SMC party and the Minister of the Economy Zdravko Počivalšek also expressed support for the idea. He himself already got a taste of the power of the media first-hand when he was being “dragged through the mud” for several months by the mainstream media due to the procurement of emergency medical equipment. “If Brussels only has the (dis)information from one side, they cannot have a complete picture of the situation,” wrote the president of the second-largest coalition party.
The moves of the central Slovenian media in the service of the deep state have become quite boring already and have been seen many times before. We witnessed the same scenarios play out in the years from 2004 to 2008 and in 2012. It is time for the foreign and independent institutions to put an end to the manipulations and prove that what we have been saying all along is, in fact, true – the mainstream media is controlled by the transitional left, and the Janez Janša government has no effect on them.
Luka Perš
