On Saturday morning, the Social Democrats (SD) published a greeting card for all their supporters on their official Twitter account and website, directly revealing the background of the political ideology of the governing party. The greeting card fails to mention Christmas at all – SD only wish you a Happy New Year – but the picture is the most controversial part since there is a red five-pointed star on the central New Year tree.
Interestingly, this year the Social Democrats have celebrated 120 years of their existence since they are, according to their own interpretation, the successors of the social democrats from 1896, even though Communists in Yugoslavia had banned this party, and there are many prominent politicians from the former one-party system at the top of SD today.
Moreover, in the 1920s, after seizing power, the Communists in Russia replaced the Christmas star on top of the Christmas tree with a red star and turned the Christmas holidays into New Year holidays. The repression was also felt in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia since Christmas as a national holiday was abolished in 1953 and only reintroduced in 1991 when Slovenia became independent. Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus had to take their leave as well, and they were replaced with the socialist Grandfather Frost, who brought presents on New Year’s Day.
L. S.