The numbers of people infected with the new coronavirus remain high. After setting a new record on Tuesday – 4,481 infections, according to the NIJZ, 3,568 infections with the new coronavirus were confirmed on Wednesday. The share of positives was 39.3 percent. As more and more patients require hospital treatment due to respiratory failure, the situation in hospitals is chaotic at the expense of staff shortages. Obviously, this does not bother people like Tea Jarc. Namely, the trade unionist is calling for Friday’s anti-government protests in Ljubljana via her Facebook profile after the court confirmed to her that protesting is more important than maintaining public health.
“Judicial victory! Vizjak, Hojs and the others have obviously not yet managed to subdue the judges!! The courts are still functioning and after more than half a year I get a Judgment on behalf of the people, where my appeal is upheld. In February, I was fined 733.83 euros for allegedly attending an unregistered rally, which was allegedly banned. As the courts have repeatedly stated, the right to protest must be respected, and in this case there are no violations! However, it is really bad that the Government has illegally persecuted protesters and that the budget now covers the costs of their illegal actions!” wrote the trade unionist Tea Jarc triumphantly.
Jarc further emphasised that the protests were legal and, despite the catastrophic epidemiological picture, called on all like-minded people to join her on Friday, November 12th, at 5 pm at Prešeren Square in Ljubljana. “Justice is on our side!!!,” she is convinced. Prime Minister Janez Janša has already responded to irresponsible calls and wrote critically: “Such a judiciary helps to spread covid-19”. Jarc ignores the accusations of calling for protests, as she defends the belief that only the government is to blame for the catastrophic epidemiological situation, is to blame for the incompetence. According to her, Friday’s protests also point to this. “Putting the blame on individuals like Dr Brigita Skela Savič is a distraction and a transfer of responsibility, which the government has been doing for a year and a half,” claims Jarc.
The fact that Jarc defended the SD party member Skela Savič, who called for Friday’s protests, is not surprising in the least. Friday’s protest is organised by the so-called Protest People’s Assembly and 50 civil society organisations, including Srebrna nit, of which Skela Savič is a member of the executive committee. Skela Savič, who participated in the 2018 elections in the SD party, insists that by calling for protests, she does not call for violations of measures, but for the preservation of democracy. “The protest is organised under the conditions of the PTC, the use of masks and distance, such is the current decree,” she insists, although we have seen week after week since the new government is in power, that the protesters are mostly ignoring to respect protection measures.
Since Skela Savič represents the very top of nurses in Slovenia (she is also active in the International Association of Nurses), it is not surprising that the Professional Association of Nursing and Midwifery Care Providers of Slovenia called for her recall. Jarc, who is known for her hysterical outburst on Kredarica, is not afraid of anyone urging her to leave, as she holds the position of president of the Mladi plus trade union. She is an outspoken opponent of the government of Janez Janša and an established participant and promoter of Friday’s cycling rallies of the bourgeois left, who looked especially in good spirits when Milan Kučan visited them at Friday’s protests. Most likely, this gave her additional motivation to call for protests with such zeal today, where the main frontman is Jaša Jenull, the son of the Supreme State Prosecutor from the Criminal Department Hinko Jenull.
No matter, there is nothing better for opponents of the government if you have the secrecy of the competent institutions in endangering public health, which obviously do not put health first. The main thing is that they can protest, but in the meantime they care very little if people are dying, covid wards are overcrowded, and doctors and nurses are burning from exertion. How much longer?
Sara Kovač
