When news broke on Friday last week that the anti-vaxxers from the ranks of the so-called OPS movement (Osveščeni prebivalci Slovenije – Informed Citizens of Slovenia) had broken into the premises of RTV Slovenia, and that they had managed to reach the studio of the news programme, there were practically no people that did not condemn the act. Among others, the prominent member of the SD party and Member of the European Parliament, Milan Brglez, also responded to the movement’s actions, writing the following: “This is outrageous. And where are the responses from the Ministry of Culture, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Aleš Hojs, Matej Tonin? Does your silence mean that you support or even agree with these actions?” As a sign of agreement with what was written, both the SD party, as well as the party’s president and MEP Tanja Fajon, retweeted this without any additional comment. What is interesting is that the SD party had a completely different view of the matter when one of their members broke into the premises of the Maribor municipality.
Namely, we are talking about the SD MP Franc Trček, who was a member of the Levica party (the Left) when he entered politics. The former professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and philosopher who graduated and also received his doctorate with the dissertation entitled “The Socio-Spatial Implications of the Internet,” for which he even received the Prešeren Student Award, found himself in the spotlight when he began attending the Maribor uprisings in 2013. Let us remind you that at the time, violence escalated to the point where the protesters were burning bales of hay, hanging dolls, made threats at people’s homes, and even broke into public spaces.
Eight years ago, on the 4th of February, the Maribor City Council was discussing the city budget. At the time, left-wing protesters from Maribor wanted to prevent the budget from being adopted and therefore tried to break into the municipal session. By whistling, shouting, honking, and insulting the members of the City Council, they wanted to create chaos. Inside the building where the Maribor Municipality is located, they, of course, came across police officers, fought with them, and tried to portray Trček, who was (only) a protester at the time, as a victim.
The protesters hung puppets during the uprisings and broke into municipal premises
Since Trček even went far enough with his “peaceful” protesting to be detained by the police for violating public law and order, it is interesting how he was not bothered by the fact that he was a professor at the time and should have been a role model to his students. The revolutionary colours were clearly more important than that. At the time, the police announced that Trček persisted throughout the uprising and tried to break through the police cordon, despite the fact that the protesters were called to leave the building of the Municipality of Maribor. What’s more, Trček even invited other participants in the uprisings to join him. However, as public order could not be established in any other way, the police officers were forced to use coercive means. In this particular case, physical force was used, Trček was knocked to the ground, handcuffed and detained for the shortest possible period of time – two hours.
After being released, Trček said that it is important to stay aware of the fact that he does not represent a protesting prostitute. “Maribor is the hero. Janša, kill me if you want and if it will make things easier for you. You will not kill Maribor,” he said, thus apparently trying to create the impression of a victim who was subject to repression by the then-Prime Minister Janez Janša. Trček admitted that the police treated him completely correctly but nevertheless still insisted that, according to him, Janša wanted the blood of the protesters and the police. At the time, no one condemned any of this, as it was clearly important for the leftists to make sure that Franc Kangler disappeared from political life at the local level, which was also what they wished would happen to the then-government.
The left-wing politics and media support the violent overthrow of the government
The reactions of the public in the case of protesters breaking into the public RTV Slovenia were completely different. However, it is still interesting how the protesters led by Jaša Jenull and Tea Jarc can afford to do practically anything and still, nobody says anything, as if what they are doing is nothing out of the ordinary. It was only when we witnessed the violent protests in Ljubljana last year that the leftists responded. Interestingly, no one, neither the media nor the left-wing half of politics, noticed the similarities between the violent protests and their own actions at the time, because after all, if the protests had not been supported, the situation would not have escalated to the level it did. It is also undoubtedly helpful for the protesters that the competent institutions are not responding to the situation at all. The example of Trček, whose action was not widely condemned by the public and politicians, shows that if you are the chosen one and you are “ours,” you can do practically anything you want. And on top of that, you even become a hero. It is sad, however, that such a person can eventually become a representative of the people!
Sara Kovač
