The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 28 August 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here
Mladina: Beović spreading hysteria while not controlling infections
STA, 28 August 2020 - The latest commentary in the left-leaning weekly Mladina comes as a letter by the editor-in-chief written to Bojana Beović, the head of the Health Ministry's Covid-19 task force, in which she is being criticised for spreading hysteria in Slovenia over potential infections while practically doing nothing to control infections.
In Letter to Prof. Bojana Beović, Grega Repovž says that while a majority of expert guidelines so far have been logical and well explained, "this of course could not be said for the government's policy, which you also belong to and support with your statements."
"The government policy is based on scaremongering, exaggeration and misleading, because of which most of the people do not trust you enough, which public opinion polls show. This is bad, because the autumn is coming."
Repovž says that citizens deserve respect from representatives of the authorities, and that Beović has acted the opposite in recent weeks, especially when it comes to the return of Slovenian holiday-goers from Croatia.
"You deliberately mislead people, and exerted psychological violence on them with fearmongering and spreading uneasiness. Acting like this had no logic, especially if it is compared to how the relevant expert bodies in Austria and Germany acted."
Beović claimed that quarantine is a better solution than testing, and it is, but "your government did not introduce quarantine for people returning from Croatia at all - everyone who returned by the evening last Monday avoided quarantine."
Hysteria was being spread among people for ten days, but all who were in Croatia during the most critical period returned to their jobs on Monday without being tested or quarantined. "You were not stricter than Austrians and Germans, as you tried to portray, but you actually did nothing to control the infections."
Repovž also notes that it is not true that the authorities are able to compare data on entry and exit from the country, which people were threatened with. "These databases do not exist. This is exaggerating and arrogantly inventing things, while control of infections is missing. Why?".
He wonders if Beović perhaps believes that "hysteria and fearmongering are means to an and - people in general being aware of the situation, expressing solidarity and acting safe. This does not even work in small children."
What Beović has done is only spoiling people's vacations and scaring the entire nation, while actually not introducing quarantine or testing. "You introduced quarantine only now, when families with small children, older persons and people with lower income are going on holiday."
Demokracija: Judiciary should admit mistakes
STA, 27 August 2020 - The right-wing weekly Demokracija says that the "swamp" of Slovenia's judiciary is slowly drying out, judging by "obvious nervousness seen in reactions by the (heads) of the judiciary and the prosecution to criticism occasionally offered by [Prime Minister] Janez Janša".
Under the headline Red Vipers, the weekly says on Thursday that judges and prosecutors in Slovenia are not held accountable for the mistakes they make.
Even though they have been proven to hand down wrongful rulings, at odds with the rule of law, and charges borne out of political constructs or confrontations, judges and prosecutors continue to defend their work.
"None of them ever has tried to correct the wrongs in the Patria case. Nobody has even apologised," the weekly says about the defence corruption case that saw Janša being found guilty of accepting the promise of a bribe before a retrial was ordered and the case became statute barred.
And now they are trying to avoid facing the consequences in the lawsuits brought against them by Janša and his party, the Democrats (SDS), the paper says. The most recent manoeuvre is a local purview ping-pong in lawsuits against a prosecutor and judges involved in the Patria case.
"Lawyer Franci Matoz is right in saying that the 'comic tragedy has become a serial'," the paper says in reference to Janša's lawyer.
Slovenia has never really broken away from revolutionary law, and the judiciary and the prosecution "can not only cost you your good name but can force you to spend your time and money on (impossible) defence from something that is very obviously a fabrication".
"But neither the prosecutor using manipulated evidence nor a judge from the judicially 'indicative circle', face any consequences." Not only that, they get promoted. The public should be afraid of such judges and prosecutors and should not keep quiet.
"Every day, the every-man should come to the swamp and help dry it, because the smelly and slimy untouchables can do injustice to him as well," the paper says, also accusing the "mainstream media" of supporting untrue indictments and rulings, while attacking those who dare speak out about injustices.
All our posts in this series are here
