Initiators of the Slovenian Waters Act referendum believe that water should be defended and protected from the current government. No, this is not a joke involving Zdravko Počivalšek, but the actual words of Luka Mesec, who is worried, among other things, that the government would enable the privatisation of coastal lands with an amendment to the law – and in this case, their fear is understandable, since we know that the Levica party is absolutely opposed to private property. But it should be emphasised once more that the amendment to the law actually narrows the possibility of building and interventions on coastal lands, and the left-wing activists are only pretending to fight for drinking water with the referendum. This has now also been confirmed by the left-wing artist Arjan Pregl and the leader of the Youth Forum, Luka Gorišek, who showed their enthusiasm for a private house, built directly above a freshwater stream in an area with little to no buildings. The fact that the anti-government activists are actually not in favour of drinking water is also proven by the fact that people associated with the SD party are responsible for polluting the Sava river with faeces and mud.
The SD party entered the campaign before the referendum on the Slovenian Waters Act with the slogan “There is no freedom without water.” The party’s MP Marko Koprivc said: “What has been happening in Slovenia for the last year is far from freedom. One of the very important goods that must not be endangered is certainly clean drinking water.” Koprivc believes that the amendment to the law, adopted by the National Assembly, restricts access to clean drinking water and other waters in Slovenia. According to him, the SD party believes that the voters will reject the amendment to the Act in a referendum on the 11th of July, as it is harmful and serves the interests of capital and lobbyists. “I think it already smells like freedom here, and it will soon return to Slovenia,” Koprivc then added. Of course, the Young Forum (Mladi forum – the youth section of the SD party), the president of which is Luka Gorišek, is also participating in the campaign.
“Water needs to be protected from this government,” said the coordinator of the Levica party (the Left), Luka Mesec. He believes that the government wants to enable the privatisation of coastal lands with the amendment to the law, and the coordinator of the party’s expert group for the environment, Luka Omladič, stressed that the coastal parts of the land must remain undeveloped. “Water is our greatest wealth; it is the source of life. Members of the SAB party were the first to sign the initiative to enshrine the right to clean water in the constitution,” president of the SAB party, Alenka Bratušek, said in her statement. She estimated that the amendment to the Waters Act would facilitate the wrong use of banks and drinking water.
The left-wing elite likes all things elite – however, in reality, their actions are not in accordance with what they say
From everything that has been said about this matter, it is clear from afar that this is really just another campaign against the current government and not for drinking water, which is the idea that the left-wing opposition is trying to sell to the public. This also turned out to be true in the case that was pointed out by Tomaž Štih. Slovenia’s esteemed artist Arjan Pregl, who is also a vocal left-wing activist, posted an old photo on his social media profile, in which he is standing in front of the house built in the Bear Run Nature Reserve, above a waterfall – this is the house that was designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright for a successful businessman and founder of the Kaufmann’s Department Store. The house was designed and built before the Second World War, at a time when there was little talk about environmental issues. The house is certainly stunning, but it is incomprehensible that anyone who is supposed to, at least seemingly, fight against construction on the water banks is enthusiastic about it. Namely, the house in question is not only set on the bank of a river; it is literally built above a waterfall.
However, Pregl is not the only one who is enthusiastic about this house, as another advocate for drinking water, the president of the Young Forum, Luka Goršek, liked Pregl’s photo.
Štih exposed the left-wing’s fake commitment to drinking water and wrote that Pregl and Gorišek published and liked a photo of a private building, built above water, in an undeveloped area – all in the pre-referendum period. So they like everything they are supposedly fighting against. Pregl really could not have chosen a worse moment to post this photo, even if he had tried.
The amendment to the law limits the possibility of construction or encroachment on coastal lands
On the 11th of July, a referendum will be held, on which we should all vote FOR. The referendum question will read as follows: “Are you in favour of enforcing the Act Amending the Water Act, adopted by the National Assembly at its session on the 30th of March, 2021?” The law will fall if at least one-fifth of all eligible voters vote against it in the referendum. Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Andrej Vizjak, M.Sc., said some time ago that the messages of those who tried to get people to sign the referendum initiative were the diametric opposite of what the Water Act actually brings – more money for the maintenance of watercourses and narrowing the possibility of interventions on coastal lands. Signatures were also being collected under the pretext that this was a petition for drinking water and access to water, even though the right to those is already written in the constitution. The president of the SNS party, Zmago Jelinčič, pointed out that non-governmental organisations, such as the Institute of the 8th of March, are not actually worried about water, but rather about the inflow of money. He also pointed out that the money that will be spent on the referendum could have been spent on things that would be much more useful. He added that the amendment to the Water Act actually introduces additional water safeguards, allows free access to water and ensures flood safety – so, just the opposite of what the left-wing opposition and the other referendum initiators are saying. Interestingly, the referendum will actually be against drinking water, which the Levica party even admitted, as they wrote on Twitter that there will be “a referendum against drinking water, held on the 11th of July,” which they later deleted.
It is also interesting that the Levica party is not critical of the existing law, as it actually allows what they are claiming the amendment will allow – which is clear to anyone who looks around and sees what has been built on coastal belts so far. “The amendment eliminates the possibility of shrinking this coastal zone with a government decree for the purpose of building private facilities,” Vizjak said, who is convinced that the coastal zone should only be reserved for the interventions that offer wider benefits for the general public. They do not want the coastal strip to be subject to individual and private needs, which is what can happen under the existing law. “So with the amendment, we are narrowing the possibility of construction or interventions on coastal lands,” Vizjak explained.
Prominent members of the SD party are responsible for polluting the Sava river with faeces and mud
While the left-wing opposition is dealing with an imaginary problem that will cost the taxpayers a lot of money, as we will have to pay for the referendum, it seems to have forgotten about real problems. A couple of days ago, our media outlet exclusively reported on how difficult it is to take the SD party seriously in its claims of trying to protect clean, drinking water, as the party’s prominent members are actually responsible for the pollution of the Sava river with faeces and mud. In the years between 2013 and 2015, the company Esotech built a new sewage treatment plant in the municipality of Jesenice. The then-mayor of the SD party, Tom Mencinger, and a prominent member of the same party, Jan Škoberne, whose father is a partial owner of Esotech and the president of the board, were also involved in the construction process. Despite the fact that citizens, city councillors, former employees of the Public Utility Company Jesenice have evidence that faeces are flowing into the river Sava and that the water in Jesenice was harmful to the health of citizens, nothing has changed to date. The new mayor of Jesenice, Blaž Račič, an “independent” candidate in the last election, was also faced with the problem and the evidence. According to our sources, he is politically close to the SD party, and he has also not taken any action so far. In this matter, we can certainly talk about a conflict of interest, as both Mencinger and Škoberne come from the same political party. The director of the Public Utility Company Jesenice, Uroš Bučar, is also politically affiliated with the SD party. “I think it already smells like freedom here and it will soon return to Slovenia,” Koprivc said, but as always, the SD party imagines freedom in its own way – meaning, unlimited construction, wherever it suits them, and pollution without any of them having to take responsibility.
Sara Bertoncelj
