Slovenian intellectuals, with Dimitrij Rupel, Ph.D., who is the first signatory, have sent a letter to Director-General of Deutsche Welle, Peter Limburg, in which they highlighted the events from the Slovenian political scene that have happened in recent years, as it is obvious that the truth is different from what was recently published on the German website. In the letter, Slovenian
intellectuals pointed out the phenomenon of the so-called “new faces” which are actually installed by the deep state, as well as the protests that are just a tool being used by the current opposition, which is preparing itself for the third wave of its return or the renewal of elements of the communist system, following the example of Slobodan Milošević’s infamous “rallies of truth” and, as it turns out, intends to overthrow the legal and legitimate Slovenian Government with mass cycling events and by ignoring the facts.
In a letter to Director-General of Deutsche Welle, Peter Limbourg, the free-thinking and freedom-loving Slovenian intellectuals with the first signatory, Dimitrij Rupel, Ph. D., initially wrote that the signatories of this letter, “in the 1980s, each in their own field, committed themselves to the independence, sovereignty, and democracy of the Slovenian state, and we all continue to strive for that today.” Their efforts have always received strong support from the Federal Republic of Germany and its media, including DW (Deutsche Welle), whose motto is “impartial information for the freedom of the spirit.”
Slovenian intellectuals have begun to notice that Deutsche Welle has been paying more and more attention to the political developments in our country, lately more so than usual, so they wanted to inform the Director-General, Mr. Limburg, of their view, which differ, in parts, from DW’s reports. They wrote that on March 13th, 2020, in Ljubljana – after the resignation of the then-Prime Minister Marjan Šarec – a new centre-right coalition Government was formed, led by Janez Janša, President of the party that won the last parliamentary elections in 2018. “This Government immediately had to start dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic in – similarly to your own Government – had to impose some restrictions. The imposed measures of the new Government have been successful so far: in Slovenia, the epidemic has taken the lives of (relatively) two times fewer people than in Germany, and ten times less than in our neighbouring country of Italy. Today, like many other European countries, Slovenia is ‘loosening’ its preventive measures, and life is slowly returning to normal.”
In the letter, Slovene intellectuals did not try to hide the fact that “with the new coalition Government, there have also been protests and demonstrations opposing its measures and restrictions, which the protesters, supporters of the former – rather indifferent and negligent – Government, have declared to be authoritarian, repressive,” while at the same time, accusing Janša’s Government of abusing the epidemic for their own political purposes. “This is not true! Opponents of the current Government, who have also been the opponents of all previous centre-right governments in the thirty years of Slovenia’s existence as an independent country, are constantly feeding these untrue facts to foreign media. In short: the political ambitions of the opponents of the current Government, which started its work in difficult circumstances only two months ago, are painting a false portrayal of our country to other countries abroad, which worries all of us, signatories of the letter.” The wrong impression, however, has apparently also found its place in the Deutsche Welle, as it had awarded the aforementioned attempts with special recognition.
The media scene is still one of the key problems of the new Slovenian state, Slovenian intellectuals wrote in their letters, explaining that “in Yugoslavia, the communist regime treated the journalist as ‘socio-political workers’ whose task was to cooperate in the implementation of the regime’s politics.” They added that to this day, this notion had not changed much, as nowadays, for example, the mainstream media, especially the printed ones, are directly owned by the representatives of circles formed from the political class, which ruled until 1990.
In the letter, they also touched on the ruling political class, which in the years of 1945-1990, “resisted democratic changes from the very beginning – albeit, after 1991, very cautiously, due to the well-known events in the disintegrated former Yugoslav federation – and after 2002, the first obvious wave of attempts to restore socialism happened in Slovenia, which was stopped in 2001, twelve years after the disintegration of Demos, by the first centre-right Government (led by Janez Janša). The second wave of these attempts happened during the time of the aforementioned Jaša’s Government, in 2007, one evening before the start of the Republic of Slovenia’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. In the second march of the left-wing parties, which (similarly to the Left in Germany) are the successors of the former socialist regime, the so-called ‘Tactic of new faces’ (for example Zoran Janković, Alenka Bratušek, Miro Cerar, Marjan Šarec), persons who ran for the post of Prime Minister without any political qualification and completely untested on the national political scene, began.
However, it is exactly the “new faces” who have “in the years 2011-2018 in three consecutive (!) early elections, prevented the electoral victory of the parties which relate to the basis of the ‘Slovenian spring’ movement.” They added that Marjan Šarec, the Prime Minister who voluntarily resigned at the end of January this year, “did not win the last parliamentary elections in 2018, but merely put together a minority Government in order to prevent the election winner Janez Janša from taking over the Prime Minister’s post. After barely a year and a half of rule, he wanted to force new early elections again, but he failed to do so, as he only caused the formation of a new coalition Government, which is being led by the Prime Minister Janez Janša, whose party won the elections in 2018.” The intellectuals added that this tactic of “new faces” was often accompanied by the already mentioned “exporting” of political scenarios to other countries (to Italy, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, etc.), as well as an “importing” from abroad, to Slovenia.
It is clear that “today, the unemployed current opposition is preparing the third wave of its return or the renewal of elements of the communist system, following the example of Milošević’s infamous “rallies of truth” and, as it turns out, intends to overthrow the legal and legitimate Slovenian Government with mass cycling events and by ignoring the facts. The mainstream media and some journalists who report to you, have forgotten about the values of impartiality and consideration of the facts and have once again become the ‘socio-political’ workers in the service of politics, which has ruled in Slovenia 80 percent of the time since 1990.”
The signatories of the letter to Director-General of Deutsche Welle, Peter Limburg, are:
Dimitrij Rupel, Ph.D., former Minister of Foreign Affairs of (1990-1993, 2000-2008)
Damjan Prelovšek, Ph. D., former ambassador
Borut Trekman, former ambassador
Dejan Steinbuch, editor of Portal+
Lojze Peterle, former Prime Minister of Slovenia (1990-1992), Member of the European Parliament (2004-2019)
Peter Jambrek, Ph.D., former member and President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic Slovenia (1991-1999)
Andrej Čadež, Ph. D., university professor
Radko Istenič, engineer, university professor
Alenka Puhar, journalist
Janko Kos, Ph. D., professor and academic
Bojan Požar, editor and journalist
Peter Jančič, editor
Tino Mamić, editor and journalist
Miroslav Mozetič, former judge and President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic Slovenia (2007 – 2016)
Primož Pečnik
Vladimir Kirn
Andrej Mertelj
Boštjan Pečnik
Primož Pegam
Drago Sopčič
Marta Seljak
Igor Pust
Tomaž Erzar
Rok Prešern, President of the board of the Institute Dr. Janez Evangelist Krek
Miro Germ
Aleksander Jan
Stanislav Kogoj
Darja Bele
Pucko Bojan
Pucko Marija
Pucko Marijan
Gregor Kramar
mag. Matej Beltram
Igor Bele, attorney (retired)
Miran Prajnc
Frane Lazar
Meta Bora Kovač
dr. Uroš Kržič
Andreja K. Bogataj
Katja Kržič
mag. Andrej Kržič
Andrej Kržič ml.
Martin Česnik
Egon Česnik
Stanko Vilčnjak
Marjan Mahne
dr. Goran Kugler, university professor
Jožef Balažic
mag. Tomaž Slokar
Andraž Perko
Iva Brinovec
Vinko Vasle
Alojz Ivanušič
Anton Leskovec
Igor Jelen As can be seen at the PortalPlus website, the readers can also contribute their signature electronically ([email protected]). The list of the names of signatories will be updated below the letter.
Barbara Majdič