The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 3 April 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here
Mladina: Govt using coronavirus to push its own agenda
STA, 3 April 2020 - Commenting on the government's actions in the light of the coronavirus epidemic, the left-wing weekly Mladina argues that Prime Minister Janez Janša is capitalising on the coronavirus crisis and driving his own political agenda by proposing extreme measures that use people's fears to appear warranted.
One would hope that Janša has learned his lesson after three "thunderous falls from power", that he "finally knows he must respect democracy, the existence of different opinions, that experts' opinions are professional even if people have different political beliefs, and most notably, that in this country one cannot rule this way".
When he started showing first signs of doing just that, driving disproportionate measures to bend Slovenia's society to his will, it was first thought that the extreme times called for a bit tougher ruling methods to ensure that citizens internalise Covid-19 containment measures or it was said that the government was still finding its feet during difficult circumstances.
However, the situation has escalated quickly, says the commentary headlined Propaganda War, adding that Janša's party, the Democrats' (SDS), is truly admiring the developments in Hungary.
History teaches us that there is plenty of people who "want to have absolute power and who actually see democracy as something which limits them. And that such people are currently leading quite a few countries".
"Everything that seems like a bad version of a grotesque is true," says Mladina, listing a few examples when Janša pushed his own agenda of "transforming this nation into one great SDS party", such as convincing people that some citizens were actually flocking to tourist spots over last weekend.
Some media found families and individuals at the seaside and lakeside resorts, but they talked about "an invasion". The government knew this did not actually happen - "the police issued only some 90 warnings across Slovenia, and only a few in the Gorenjska and Primorska regions" which are deemed the most popular for weekend trips, but the situation nevertheless paved the way for a ban on movement outside municipal units.
On top of that, the government's coronavirus crisis spokesperson Jelko Kacin scolded couples and families for sitting closely to each other on benches in parks as if they were children.
The weekly wonders why such conduct is tolerated if families are after all allowed to stay together during the crisis. Moreover, it also points out that the government has made a clear distinction between couples and "couples" by laying down that only those living in shared households are allowed to be with each other during the lockdown.
After the introduction of the municipal ban, children of divorced parents are not even allowed to see the other parent if they live in another municipality.
Mladina hence argues that the government is "abusing the epidemic of a dangerous virus for its own political purposes", capitalising on our fears and distress.
Such actions should not be tolerated, particularly in such circumstances, says editor-in-chief Grega Repovž, adding that relevant data show citizens are actually respecting the restrictions and should deserve praise for that.
Demokracija: Condemns media critical of govt
STA, 2 April 2020 - The right-wing weekly Demokracija is critical in its commentary on Thursday of "leftist mainstream media attacking the centre-right government willy-nilly with heavy artillery". It says this reaction is understandable because anti-coronavirus measures have not only been well-received by the people, but also undermine the leftists' agenda.
This agenda is known as cultural Marxism and is based on the undermining of traditional values. These ideas have long been spread by a variety of NGOS, mostly founded and funded by George Soros, the weekly's editor-in-chief Jože Biščak says under the headline Resurrection.
"Now this delusional dream of Slovenia again becoming a swampy socialist community, are bursting... The hardest blow being that LGBT activists and retarded social scientists can no longer brainwash students."
Now, for at least a few months, upbringing in back in "the right hands - the hands of parents". Parents must build a mental wall in the heads of their offspring so that "no degenerate leftist idea will ever again come near the brains of our descendants".
Children must come to understand that there are only two sexes and that each has its own historical burden in preserving a nation. They must understand that "hordes of foreigners from Africa and the Mohammedan world cannot replace noble Slovenian women and courageous Slovenian men".
"These days, luckily, we are witnessing a slight turning in Slovenia back to the family, religion, patriotism, the almost forgotten principles, above all there can again be seen a return to values that allowed the Slovenian nation to survive."
Demokracija says leftist media fear that Slovenia would wake up a different nation after the coronavirus epidemic. "Not a dictatorship, a threat they have been using to scare the people, but a country of free people, who showed in isolation their true solidarity and brought back humble pray to God."
"This will be a renewed resurrection, in which progressive 'rebellion' will disappear and Slovenia will be on its way to a new future, where nothing will be out of reach of hard-working hands."
All our posts in this series are here
