It seems that today's left political faction in Slovenia is afraid to confront post-WWII killings, internationally acclaimed philosopher Slavoj Zizek said at a debate organised by the opposition Zares party, calling for a clean break with the past.
He finds it "a tragedy that we still haven't managed a decent confrontation with Stalinism". The problem with Stalinism, he finds, referring to post-WWII Yugoslavia, is that "good people, who thought they were doing good things, did horrible things".
All the consequences of Stalinism need to be admitted, as "we don't hurt ourselves by doing so", he stressed.
In this respect, he said he had a problem with President Danilo Tuerk decorating former chief of the secret police Tomaz Ertl in 2009, which caused much controversy in Slovenia.
Ertl was decorated for his role in a 1989 police campaign that prevented a Serb nationalist rally in Ljubljana. Zizek said that decorating Ertl for one deed while neglecting his past was like decorating Hitler for building motorways.
On the Slovenian political stage, Zizek is meanwhile afraid of the call of opposition leader Janez Jansa for "more homeland" and he pointed out that "more state" was needed, not "more homeland".
Speaking about the situation in Slovenia 20 year after it gained independence at the event dubbed "What Time is It 20 Years Later", he urged people not to get caught up in the bipolarity between Jansa and Prime Minister Borut Pahor, noting that this was a "false bipolarity".
Zares president Gregor Golobic meanwhile said that a myth had developed about 25 June 1991 being the main point of Slovenia's fight for independence. He believes that independence "took place" already at the end of the 1980s.
Golobic noted that what bothered him the most in Slovenian politics were "pretend allies" and stressed that Zares was the only political party in Slovenia that could not be bought.
Zizek explained he appeared at the debate to defend his friend Golobic, who had a public reputation of being intelligent but corrupt and a liar; Zizek said that to the contrary, his experience with Golobic was that he was "honest in his core, but sometimes a little daft".
SOURCE: The Slovenia Times
