The Club of Slovenian Students in Vienna (Klub slovenskih študentk in študentov na Dunaju) recently held a party to celebrate its 100 years of existence, and the party also included the flag of the former socialist Yugoslavia. The Austrians wanted to cut off their funding because of their extreme Marxist views.
Vienna was already a university centre during the times of the common Austro-Hungarian state, where Slovenian students went to study and returned with progressive ideas and knowledge. Since 1923, the Club of Slovenian Students in Vienna has been operating there, and this year marks its 100th anniversary.
It is saddening to learn that the Club of Slovenian Students in Vienna held one of its recent parties with the flags of the former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, at which the young people happily took photos. 100 years later, this Club is a pale shadow of its founders, exporting to democratic Austria the ideas of failed socialism and a state that massively violated human rights. And which forced our compatriots to move abroad, around the world, to seek a better life. In addition, the scenes of us having to go to our neighbouring Austria to the shops for basic goods such as coffee, chocolate, bananas and washing powder are still very much alive …
Why the Club of Slovenian Students in Vienna has such tendencies and why they did not instead proudly take photos of themselves with the Slovenian flag is still being cleared, but this is not the first time they have publicly displayed totalitarian symbolism, as one look at their Facebook page reveals that they are actually an extreme Marxist student cell, even having the red star as the symbol of their association. In the past, they have welcomed illegal migrants, and they have staged performances that even the Soviet Union would be proud of. They have even hosted Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar as their guest. As we have been able to find out, the society is made up mainly of Carinthian Slovenians, which is a phenomenon of its own.
Their website also reveals that the Club of Slovenian Students in Vienna has already come under criticism from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPŐ), which wanted to cut their funding because of their extremist left-wing views. For three years, the City of Vienna had been funding events with extreme left-wing content, such as the Anti-Fascist Winter and the Feminist Spring, and the withdrawal of funding was commented on by members of the Club as an attack on the Slovenian minority in Austria.
Andrej Žitnik
