The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 26 March 2021. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here
Mladina: Govt increasingly relying on repressive apparatus
STA, 26 March 2021 - Mladina says in its latest commentary that, as ever more people are losing trust in the government, the latter is increasingly relying on the repressive apparatus in exercising its power, adding that, in terms of repressiveness, Janez Janša has exceeded "his role model from Budapest" Viktor Orban.
"Life in Slovenia may become dangerous for many people in the coming months. And we are serious about the word 'dangerous'", the left-leaning weekly says in the commentary headlined Dangerous Times.
On behalf of the Democrats (SDS), Interior Minister Aleš Hojs continues to install political staff in all senior positions in the police, with one of the purposes being to intimidate police officers into shelving certain cases.
"The second reason is worse. It is a clear intention to use the police for political purposes," Mladina says, noting that the government adopted a decision last week that the police investigate Slovenian Press Agency (STA) director Bojan Veselinovič.
It has meanwhile been reported this week that criminal investigation has also been launched against Court of Audit president Tomaž Vesel, and the goal is the same - to make him nervous, to make him stop auditing their work, to step down, or at least withdraw from public.
"Against the disobedient and those who do not agree with it or are not willing to be subjugated to it, the government is using the repressive apparatus, i.e. the police," the weekly says, adding that this is not surprising at all.
Slovenia has arrived to a point where comparisons with Hungary are no longer appropriate, as "Janša has surpassed his role model from Budapest. There are realistic reasons for this: if Orban is convincing for the majority of Hungarians, for Slovenians Janša is not."
Actually, in selecting his methods, Janša is becoming increasingly similar to Vladimir Putin, Mladina says, concluding: "It is unbelievable what is happening in Slovenia. Reality has become worse than a nightmare."
Demokracija: Judiciary should be overhauled
STA, 25 March 2021 - You don't exactly have to be Einstein to see through the deep state's plan to undermine Janez Janša as legitimately and legally elected PM and harm him with a show trial when Slovenia presides the EU in the second half of 2021 and affect the outcome of the 2022 super-election year, Demokracija says in its editorial on Thursday.
The weekly affiliated with the ruling SDS comments on what is known as the Trenta case, which revolves around a piece of land in the Trenta Valley Janša bought in 1992 and sold in 2005 for nearly nine times the price he paid, and for which an indictment against him was filed last year over abuse of office.
The magazine recalls the Patria case, "a witch hunt which the deep state dragged over a period of three elections and thus indirectly influenced the election result, while nobody was held responsible for their base doings and Janša's unfair judgement, for which he spent 176 days in jail".
It says it the Patria case was an obvious fabrication and a political trial directed against SDS leader Janša, while those who are still able to think critically recognise the same pattern in the Trenta case, which Demokracija says could amount to another election fraud.
"If the indictment in the Patria case was absurd, the one in the Trenta case is also bizarre," the editorial runs, adding that in a free and democratic world buying a property and later selling it at a profit would be a normal transaction worthy of no attention, let alone of the prosecution getting interested in it.
"But if you are Janez Janša, enemy No.1 of the deep state, the case is dragging on only to end with an indictment - because you sold the property at a higher price than you bought it (true crime, right?) and you were prime minister when selling it. So you have automatically abused office."
Demokracija says that "suitable" judges have been engaged in Trenta proceedings to make sure that the unjustified criminal procedure continues, adding that "the deep state has woven a tapestry of abuse of power and fraud while its monstrous octopus is after all who dare oppose it".
"This is no conspiracy theory as the media mainstream would like to picture it. It is heavily materialised organised crime, the implementation of ideas of Antonio Gramsci and Saul Alinsky how to come to power and rule past democratic procedures and institutions."
The two-tier justice system where everything is safety packed as "independent" must be reformed, because it could grind anyone. "Just think how the deep state sent Janša, the leader of the largest political party and a public figure, to prison on the back of a judicial construct before your eyes."
All our posts in this series are here
