The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 08 May 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here
Mladina: Uprising is coming
STA, 8 May 2020 - The left-wing weekly Mladina says in Friday's editorial that there is mounting evidence a strong resistance movement against the current government is taking shape in Slovenia.
This is why Prime Minister Janez Janša is in a hurry - he would like to intervene in all structures of this country that he finds disturbing before the situation returns to normal, at least partly, says editor-in-chief Grega Repovž.
He knows that although a majority of Slovenians are horrified by the moves of his government they are handicapped now and unable to respond the way a mature, democratic society would.
"What we are witnessing is not normal assumption of power, which includes staffing changes, but bullying of society and the state administration."
But those in power cannot deny that last Friday, despite fears about coronavirus, thousands of cyclists took to the streets of Slovenian towns. In Ljubljana alone police counted 3,500 of them.
A Facebook group expressing support to whistleblower Ivan Gale has 70,000 followers. "People who were passive not long ago have started showing active interest in the media, which is shown in the ratings of political shows and a rise in the visits of websites that the public perceives as independent.
"That a network of resistance is being formed in Slovenia can be felt at every step," Repovž says.
Cyclists merely presage what is yet to come. Trade unions too are on the verge of rebellion, including because the government has completely frozen social dialogue.
In serious European countries (and companies) the opposite is happening: whoever wants the economy to recover knows this is the time to make a pact with trade unions.
And when it becomes clear that some government measures that are to help companies will have no real effect, the business elite will also turn against the government.
"The situation is going to get very serious soon. Since we are at the beginning of a crisis, this is very bad. Now we would need a government that would know how to create a sense of stability and security," Repovž says under the headline Outlines of Rebellion.
Demokracija: RTV Slovenija & Soros
STA, 7 May 2020 - The right-wing weekly Demokracija argues in its latest commentary that mainstream media criticism and protests against the government in Slovenia reflect a confrontation between conservative liberalism and the George Soros-sponsored liberal democracy, which is on its way out.
Jože Biščak, the editor-in-chief, notes how conservative parties in the Visegrad Group countries, including Viktor Orban's Fidezs, have turned away from liberalism as championed by Soros through his sponsorship of NGOs that supported liberal democracy parties in Eastern Europe in the 1990s.
He says that as a result of their eschewing progressivism/cultural Marxism, the parties, including the ruling Democrats (SDS) in Slovenia, are being targeted by liberal democrats today because they are mostly against accepting migrants, LGBT agenda, feminism, gender theory and life deniers.
"The enforcement of mixing and creation of chaos without a clearly defined future had been met with revolt among the healthy core of Europe's indigenous population (...) by the time of the great migration wave of 2015.
"It appears Covid-19 will accelerate its demise as in isolation people are again searching for their roots, identifying themselves with national culture and their nation, are looking for the lost faith in God. Hence panic everywhere.
"A textbook example is RTV Slovenija, which is no longer hiding its political and ideological bias, and its journalists Mojca Pašek Šetinc, Jelena Aščić and Eugenija Carl are typical representatives of the 'new order', stirring fear of the alleged dictatorship of 'not-our' government they cannot influence any longer.
"The government is good as long as it is headed by people with 'right', their ideas. Once it is not, the 'civil' sphere, educated in the spirit of Soros's tradition, gets activated, relying on the leftist logic of scaremongering. Violent street protests follow that seek to topple a legitimate government."
However, in conclusion of the piece whose headline carries the same message Biščak says that liberal democracy has already been put on a ventilator, "the one that has recently been making the far-fetched story of the media mainstream".
All our posts in this series are here
