According to the District State Prosecutor Maša Podlipnik, a person is allowed to do practically everything in the name of art. Namely, the prosecutor has assessed that in the case of vandalism of the building of the Ministry of Culture and harassment of the ministry’s employees by the suspects Vuk Čosić and Miha Zadnikar Ilić, it is not clear that there were any threats made. She believes it was all just part of an artistic performance. Well, such a decision by the prosecutor can serve as an inspiration to all future aspiring artists, who just might pick her as the target of their performance.
“After all, this is an art project, an art installation, a performative action, a provocation, working outside the gallery, lying down in front of the building – the building of the Ministry of Culture, that is, or the premises of RTV Slovenia. This is the assessment of the District State Prosecutor Maša Podlipnik,” Miro Petek from the Ministry of Culture commented on Podlipnik’s decision that from the actions of Vuk Čosić and Miha Zadnikar Ilić, it is not clear if any threats were made.
Petek responded to the accusations of SD MEP Milan Brglez, who said that the Ministry of Culture supported the storming of a group of anti-government protesters into the premises of RTV Slovenia with its silence. Petek made it clear that no one at the Ministry of Culture supports the actions of the protesters. He also pointed out that the ministry has been facing attacks similar to this one for more than a year now. Petek reminded Brglez that so far, it was the left-wing political option that has applauded such attacks. “The media is turning these people into heroes. And now here we are!”
Brglez then tried to get out of the situation he found himself in, with his reputation intact. The socialist MEP claimed that on Twitter and on the website of the Ministry of Culture, “there was no official response.” In Brglez’s opinion, it is the duty of the Ministry of Culture to protect RTV Slovenia. But something like that is simply not possible in Slovenia. Namely, it is prevented by the prosecution, which has systematically treated similar outbursts and attacks on the Ministry of Culture over the past year and a half as an artistic performance. Death threats are considered an artistic performance, vandalising a building, and drawing swastikas on it is an artistic performance.
After all, this was also confirmed by the assessment of the District State Prosecutor in Ljubljana, who, in her decision of the 22nd of July 2021, refused to prosecute Vuk Čosić, Miha Zadnikar Ilić, and other unknown perpetrators for making threats, which should have been prosecuted according to the first and second paragraphs of Article 135 of the Criminal Code. However, according to the district prosecutor, the fact that the suspects brought six desks and chairs in front of the building of the Ministry of Culture, placed the names of the ministry’s employees on them and then proceeded to cover them in red paint, which was supposed to symbolise blood, cannot be considered a death threat, and so any threat or the feeling of being threatened is only in the minds of those whose names appeared on the bloody desks.
Will the prosecution recognise the artistic value of the protesters’ performance this time as well?
It will be interesting to see how the prosecution will react to the allegations of the anti-government protesters who broke into the premises of RTV Slovenia due to the way the media outlet has been reporting on the covid-19 epidemic. Will the district prosecutor’s office see what happened as an artistic performance this time as well, or will the standards for credible threats be different this time as well?
Meanwhile, Tomaž Štih warns: “The revolutionary law is still alive. The children of the socialist elite are still allowed to do everything they want. For others, however, the police are still banning their gatherings. Or pulling them off the Prešeren’s monument for no reason. Without defending one or the other – this contrast shows the actual deep inequalities in our society.” In doing so, Štih pointed out that “people are not so numb yet that they will not notice that the journalists, mixed in with the children of the elite, are allowed to vandalise the ministry buildings, while those who are not children of the elite are forcibly being dragged from the meadows by the police at the same time. A society of equality would have to be a little more imaginative than that.”
Ivan Šokić
