The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 31 May 2019
Mladina: The poor election results of the Left
STA, 31 May - Analysing the poor showing of the opposition Left in Sunday's EU election, the weekly Mladina says that rather than by a negative attitude it received from the media, the party was affected by the choice of candidates on its list, in particular Violeta Tomić as the frontrunner.
Although faced with constant opposition from all parties bar the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) and Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and a negative attitude of the media, the Left has managed to create a base of voters for itself among intellectuals, urban population and leftists.
Its cooperation with the government also did not harm its public ratings, Mladina editor-in-chief Grega Repovž notes in Friday's editorial.
So the reason for the party's election result must lay in its list of candidates, which was topped by Tomić, who has not been received well by the voters.
"People are put off by her appearance, which intentionally or unintentionally comes across as rough and thus unpleasant to most voters of the Left."
Although the views she advocates are completely in order, she simply does not leave a positive impression, Repovž says. "A large part of voters of the Left will not vote for her or would do so with unease. She is therefore simply not the right top candidate."
If a stronger candidate topped the list, which was solid and no worse than those of other lists running in the election, the Left might have won more votes. But with Tomić in the lead, the whole list lost credibility.
"Unfortunately that was not the only mistake. The party put its president (Luka) Mesec in the last spot - as a kind of public recognition that the party itself does not believe in its list. Voters perceived this as underestimating."
Winning a seat in the European Parliament is important and the Left was left without one entirely by its own blame. The poor election result also made the party weaker in the domestic political arena, Repovž says under the headline The Left.
Demokracija: EU elections mean PM on his way out
STA, 30 May 2019 - Examining the Eurovote results in its commentary on Wednesday, the right-wing weekly Demokracija says that the days of Prime Minister Marjan Šarec are numbered because he would not form alliances with other parties. This cost Igor Šoltes, the grandchild a late senior Communist Party official, his seat in the European Parliament.
Demokracija editor-in-chief Jože Biščak says under that headline Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock... that Šarec will never be forgiven by the deep state for costing Edvard Kardelj's grandchild his MEP seat.
The paper says that the people who "made a comedian a prime minister" failed at creating a liberal bloc that would comprise the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ), the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB), the Modern Centre Party (SMC) and the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) for the Eurovote.
Despite support from the mainstream media, Šarec's support has dropped. He lost the election and his party only got two seats in European Parliament.
"If Slovenia was a functioning democracy and the land on the sunny side of the Alps had a rule of law, Šarec would offer his resignation, dissolve the coalition and demand an early election."
"In a year and a half, he lost as many as four elections and with the exception of the presidential vote (which is special), he was always defeated by the Democrats (SDS).
"But because Slovenia is ruled by the deep state and the uncles drawing all the strings do not want to give up their transitional advantages, measures had to be taken to repair the damage."
This meant that left-leaning political analysts went on to proclaim the SD and the LMŠ winners of the election, while the SDS, which ran on a joint ticket with the People Party (SLS) was the loser because one of the three seats won by the coalition went to the SLS.
This perverted logic indicates a poor understanding for how the Eurovote works, Biščak says, going on to explain that election coalitions are a logical decision for EU elections, where success threshold is much higher than in the national parliamentary election.
He says that if New Slovenia (NSi) joined the SDS+SLS coalition, they could have won as many as five of Slovenia's seats in European Parliament. But the "whisperers from the background" managed to persuade NSi president Matej Tonin that he should not be in SDS head's Janez Janša's shadow.
Biščak says that the SDS would get the three MEP seats even if it did not cooperate with the SLS, while the latter could not have gotten a single MEP on its own. This alliance will allow the SLS to become a major national player once again.
Šarec's days are numbered because he refuses to listen, Biščak says, explaining how his refusal to connect with other parties cost Šoltes, who has served as MEP in the previous term, his seat in Brussels.
All our posts in this series can be found here
