We received a picture in our editorial office, which shows another of the many threats made against the current Prime Minister Janez Janša. Namely, in Škofja Loka, the following inscription was spray-painted on the façade of the Mercator store: “Kill J. Janša! Assassin.” Was this the work of the Sunday hikers who went to Dražgoše? After all, the inscription does match Kučan’s doctrine that “there are more and more signs of the revival of fascism.”
Harassment of ministers, the Prime Minister, deputies, attacks on experts and speakers at the press conferences, chanting “Kill Janša,” and the widespread use of “Death to Janšaism,” have obviously become a regular, unpunishable occurrence in Slovenia. Especially among members of the left, who consider power to be their fundamental right and are trying to suppress the establishment of democracy in Slovenia. Former leader of the League of Communists, Milan Kučan, and MP of the Party of Alenka Bratušek (Stranka Alenke Bratušek – SAB), Marko Bandelli, who announced the extermination of fascists and collaborators before the celebration in Dražgoše, have recently heavily contributed to the escalation of such violence.
From one week to the next, we were able to observe how the organised death threat “Death to Janšaism” started to appear more and more often. It is, of course, far from a general threat, as it is targeted at a specific person, but now even more concrete and open threats than the aforementioned one have started to emerge, for example, the one that was spray painted to the side of the Mercator store in Škofja Loka, which reads “Kill J. Janša.”
Unfortunately, we already know from past experience that these threats usually go unpunished, which is also why they continue to appear practically on a daily basis. Let us remind you of the chanting of “Kill Janša” at one of the protests, or how the Prime Minister Janez Janša‘s home address is being passed around on the Resni.ca (the Truth) party’s app, while the members of the group write all kinds of horrifying death threats.
We should also not forget about rapper Zlatan Čordić – Zlatko’s violence and harassment of the director of the National Institute of Public Health, Milan Krek, for which the court ruled that it was not a misdemeanour. “Courts tolerate violence. This is very bad for the country we live in. The bad thing is that this sends a message to all the young people that they can be violent, and afterwards, they can simply apologise and be forgiven,” Krek said about violence and its approval.
Not long ago, we also witnessed the harassment of Interior Minister Aleš Hojs and Prime Minister Janša on a private trip to the mountains by trade unionist Tea Jarc. In any normal country, such behaviour would not go unpunished. And due to physical and verbal threats, Borut Štrukelj, a researcher in the field of biochemistry and biotechnology, who often commented on the coronavirus epidemic at press conferences, withdrew from the public a little over a week ago. “We get threats daily by phone, e-mail, and in person. Even death threats,” he said. “Two men pushed me up against the wall. I managed to defend myself, and the attackers fled,” he described the attack, which took place in the centre of Ljubljana. The head of the expert advisory group, Mateja Logar, also commented on the verbal attacks she experiences in public several times, saying, “they tell us they will take us to court, threaten to hang us, say that the people will get their revenge.”
All of this results from the fact that such threats are never addressed, and people always go unpunished. Are they waiting for the moment when it will already be too late – when one of the threats will come true?
Sara Kovač
