Intellectuals living in our neighbouring country defend Minister Capuder

The wave of attacks on Minister Andrej Capuder following the ceremony on the occasion of Slovenian Cultural Holiday provoked a response from the Society of Slovenian Intellectuals in Trieste. In a statement, they expressed "astonishment and suspicion that this is a planned campaign aimed at undermining the personal reputation of a cultural figure, humanist and public worker, and preventing him from his responsible and difficult work." They further observe and regret "that the campaign has been disseminated by daily newspapers". They are especially concerned about how underhanded the undermining was. They assess that this is the beginning of a new election campaign against the legitimately elected majority, which proves its democracy every day in choosing a political line and which "consciously gave up purges in the state apparatus, administrative changes of leaders in public administration institutions, and any revanchism." Furthermore, they express solidarity and recognition to the Minister, and call on those responsible for the undermining not to contribute to "a legitimate majority having to repent for their courageous and tolerant attitude".

Janez Gradišnik against the fabrication of history

The writer and one of the best Slovenian translators, Janez Gradišnik, responded to an extensive series of historical articles published by Draga Ahačič in the newspaper Delo under the title "Liberation or Civil War". Although he was part of Kocbek's group of Christian socialists during the war, he is critical of Ahačič' writing, as in the "heap of writings and testimonies" she uses to support her theses she mostly considers only those who have studied history for 45 years "only from one side, the winning side". He points out that it is not clear from her writing "how all this mutual killing and persecution really started, what its causes were, and what its consequences are." In his response, Gradišnik claims that the Communist Party "will never be able to prove that its main goal was to fight the occupier and not to take power in post-war Slovenia". He bases his thought on the fact that the Communist Party "threatened with the death penalty anyone who dared to fight the occupier outside the Liberation Front," and concludes: "With what right and why if not to get rid of all possible rivals for the post-war rule – it did not care about the fight against the occupier?"

The classical philologist, writer and academic Alojz Rebula from Trieste also appeared in the Buenos Aires weekly Svobodna Slovenija in substantive accord with Gradišnik. In his article, he added the fact that "without any provocation the Liberation Front began the bloody liquidation of members of the Catholic clergy and intensified this bloodshed, which resulted in around thousand victims before any armed resistance emerged against it".

The issue of totalitarian symbols

Svobodna Slovenija weekly responded to the Slovenian National Assembly's decision not to remove the totalitarian symbol from the flag. He stressed that other East and Central European countries did so immediately after the democratic elections. The writer expressed his belief that that decision was not of the majority of the people, but that the parties stemming from the previous regime said all kinds of things, but in practice used their power because the National Assembly needed a two-thirds’ majority and prevented the step towards democratisation.

Author: Lenart Rihar