Once again, the Red May could not pass without outright lies and even veiled threats. In addition to the annual lie that the “Liberation Front” was founded on the 27th of April, this year, the left perpetuated the downright infantile lie that the first Slovenian government was formed on the 5th of May 1945. They also did not forget to include the thinly veiled threats to the profession that would dare to speak, write or think differently from the historical dogmas of the left.
The biggest lie this time was told by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, who said: “The first Slovenian government was established here, the first Slovenian government that was then within the framework of a republic, within the framework of a federal state, was the government of Kidrič. I don’t see why we should change that. As I said before, let us stop turning a blind eye – that is the way it was. That is our history. No matter how much we want to repeat something else, we will not change it.”
When the Planet TV journalist reminded her that the first Slovenian national government was, in fact, the Pogačnik government of 1918, the Speaker of the National Assembly admitted that she was actually not very familiar with post-World War I history. “Yes, well, now you should tell me a little bit more, I am not that familiar with the history after the First World War,” she admitted. Her confession is rather unusual, since, as can be read on the feminist website “She Knows” (“Ona ve”), Klakočar Zupančič has a Master’s degree in legal history. But the subject matter belongs to secondary school history.
“The first government was, of course, the National Government for Slovenia of 1918. The second could be considered, albeit a very unusual one, the so-called “camp government” (“taborska vlada”). The Ajdovska government… it was actually called the party government, and it lacked basic democratic attributes, it had no deputies and no general popular will behind it,” historian Stane Granda explained Klakočar Zupančič’s remarks.
The media were a little more cautious than the Speaker of the National Assembly. Many wrote that it was “the first government after the Second World War,” which is deliberately misleading. It makes superficial readers think that it was the first Slovenian government in history, which is actually an infantile lie. And the literal understanding of the diction is also questionable. The Ajdovska government, established on the 5th of May 1945, was overtaken by the democratic side with the so-called “camp government”, as Dr Granda pointed out.
Perpetuation of lies by the left
Klakočar Zupančič, however, not only shared historical untruths, but also made ill-concealed threats against historians from the podium. “As much as anyone today wants to revise history, they cannot,” she said. We asked Granda about the function of the annual lies perpetrated by the left. “This year, they are very repetitive, and they are trying to consolidate them. That is why they keep threatening historians, saying that the latter must not speak differently from what the leftists claim. I’m sorry, but what the Prime Minister and the Speaker of Parliament have said, I, as a professional historian, understand as a threat. That you are not allowed to say anything different from what they are saying. That is where all the profession ends, then, if you are not allowed to say anything different. They are afraid of the truth,” Granda responded.
Our interlocutor believes that if they did not repeat their lies, the truth would slip from under their feet. Instead, they prefer to reinforce the party’s or partisan view of history.
“That’s why they don’t allow questions, it’s all very dogmatically accepted. Just as Kardelj invented it, so it must be, and that’s the end of it. […] Only now do we see how deeply implanted this anti-historicism, anti-science, if you like, ideological domination over the facts really is. It is sad that we have Dr Martin Premek in Parliament, who is “holding the baton” for them,” concluded Dr Granda.
We have also sent some press questions on this topic to the Speaker of the National Assembly. We will publish the answers when we receive them.
Ž. K.
