Even before the Janša government was fully formed in March of 2020, the extensions of the left-wing parties, meaning the non-governmental organisations, had already organised protests and called for the death of Janez Janša’s supporters and threatened the coalition partners, warning them not to enter the government.
After the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) and the New Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) submitted several bills to the parliamentary procedure after confirming their parliamentary mandates in the new formation of the National Assembly, the future coalition immediately accused the two parties of “harassing” them, claiming that what they did was childish and an abuse of an otherwise completely legitimate parliamentary procedure. Well, if that is so, then what should we call the street protests that took place in a very organised manner even before the formation of the Janša government happened in 2020, the intention of which was to persuade the (former) Modern Centre Party (Stranka modernega centra – SMC, which later changed its name to Konkretno – Concretely) and the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia (Demokratska stranka upokojencev Slovenije – DeSUS) not to cooperate with the Slovenian Democratic Party?
When Marjan Šarec gave up on his role of the Prime Minister in 2020, right before the worst epidemiological crisis we have ever had to face, Prime Minister Janez Janša stepped forward and took the responsibility of leading the country onto his shoulders. But instead of supporting his decision at the time, the left-wing parties preferred to conspire in the background and organise protests with the violent slogan “Against the Coalition of Hate.” By protesting in the streets, they wanted to prevent the formation of the Janša government and appealed to the DeSUS and SMC parties to change their minds and not cooperate with the SDS party. The policy of exclusion, which is very typical for the left-wing parties, was already more than obvious at the time, as was the constructiveness in the work itself. After the protests, which happened during the pandemic, when Prime Minister Janez Janša had to deal with resolving the health crisis, in addition to everything else, the opposition cared very little whether their actions “contributed” to the useful functioning of the government or not, which was clear from all of their actions, as they did more harm than good. However, today, they dare to label the constructive proposals, which, unlike their conduct, are actually civilised and useful, as childish.
The protests escalated into riots
Let us remind you that from the beginning of 2020 onward, all of us in Slovenia saw, from week to week, an organised threat appear at the Fridays’ protests against the government, which had the full support of the opposition parties and the left-wing mainstream media. “Death to Janšaism, freedom to the people!”, “Kill Janša!” and other similar threats were used in slogans that are far from general but are actually directed at a specific person. This was confirmed by many intellectuals and lawyers, who emphasised that it was really impossible to claim ignorance when it comes to the question of who the threats were about, especially since the parole “Death to Janšaism” literally contains a person’s name and applies to him personally, as well as his family and his followers. Nevertheless, the Slovenian left never managed to condemn these serious threats, as especially its more radical part was instead more concerned with convincing the Slovenian public that the current government supposedly represents the Slovenian version of Italian fascism. Over time, however, the protests became radicalised and escalated into riots, the likes of which Slovenia had never seen before.
The proposals submitted by the SDS and NSi parties to the parliamentary procedure also refer to tax laws, amendments to the Attorneys Act, the State Prosecution Service Act, the Notariat Act, the Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions Act, and the new Prevention of Restriction of Competition Act. In addition, they made some proposals on the amendment to the Protection of Public Order Act. Among other things, they also submitted a proposal for granting the status of a municipality to the municipality of Brežice and an amendment to the Local Elections Act. According to SDS MP Danijel Krivec, some other laws they had prepared in the previous term were also submitted to the parliamentary procedure, and a larger number of submitted laws immediately after the confirmation of parliamentary mandates is “nothing special,” as they had already previously announced that they would act as a constructive opposition.
Tanja Brkić
