Not long ago, members of the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD) tried to persuade people that they believe in gender equality while parading around Congress Square, in light of the upcoming Women’s Day on the 8th of March. Perhaps it is true that the female part of the party in question actually believes in the equality of the sexes, but some of the members, especially the male representatives, only believe in it in front of the cameras, in front of the eyes of the public, while the reality is much different. This is evidenced by a video in which the former first men of the Slovenian police, Aleksander Jevšek and Janko Goršek, made shocking chauvinistic statements. Jevšek is an influential member of the SD party, and Goršek’s son is the head of the Youth Forum – the youth wing of the SD party.
“We believe in a society where women and men are equally involved and present in all areas of public and private life, have the same position and equal opportunities to enjoy all rights and develop their personal potential to contribute to social development, and benefit equally from the results it brings,” is one of the principles of the Social Democrats.
At least that what it says on their website, and it was also posted by the President of the SD party, Tanja Fajon, who shared this “thought” on the social network Twitter, when the party passionately spread the message of gender equality with a poster exhibition this past Friday, at Congress Square in Ljubljana.
They say one thing but then do another
Perhaps the female members of the party are sincere in their belief in gender equality, but judging by the video, for some (male) members, this is just a role that they play for the public – however, when the lights go out, the story changes. In the video that recently surfaced, we can see former Director-General of the Police, Janko Goršek, and former head of criminal investigators and Mayor of Murska Sobota, Aleksander Jevšek, making tasteless jokes about women. The latter became a prominent representative of the Social Democrats after his retirement. Meanwhile, Goršek tries to hide his sympathies for the SD party, but his son, Luka Goršek, is the President of the Youth Forum – the youth wing of the SD party, which puts Janko Goršek in an awkward position. And we all know how it is with political beliefs in the family – the apple does not fall far from the tree.
What is surprising is that the party which likes to preach about women’s empowerment has a completely different opinion privately. Namely, the editorial office received the aforementioned video recording from a private party, possibly from police circles, where there were obviously no female representatives present. However, Goršek and Jevšek were both there, and they made tasteless, chauvinistic statements about “normal people,” where it is clear that they excluded women from their definition of “normal” people. Jevšek even added that he hopes that this statement will not be made public. However, Jevšek’s statement is not surprising, as, according to Nova24TV journalist Luka Perš, Jevšek was already known as the “baton doctor” when he was still a young investigator. During his time in the position at the top of the Murska Sobota Polie Department, some information about mobbing and sexual harassment of female police officers and criminal investigators also came to light, and apparently, the leaders of the Murska Sobota Police Administration were also part of this.
Tanja Brkić
