The threat of the Slovenian Auditor General began shortly after he launched his agency to investigate the government’s purchase of protective equipment during the epidemic.
“There was a sudden change,” Tomaz Vesel, auditor general, told the Financial Times. “Invasion of the court [of auditors], and he began to revolt against me. . . with a clear purpose to explain what can be achieved. ”
Vesel’s research identified the flaws in the shopping process but also admitted to the temporary rush to buy masks and clothes in the early days of the crisis. But even then the campaign of harassment continued – with pieces of anti-government media and a volley of and tweets from Prime Minister Janez Jansa questioning Vesel’s loyalty.
After the report was published, police began searching the Audit office, Vesel said. “It was the first time – I have never experienced this in all my work, not even an organization. I believe there is something big behind it. If not, it is a political process.”
Vesel’s support reflects growing concerns over Slovenian democracy and legislation as the country prepares to become EU president in July.
Jansa is well known for her Twitter activities. But critics fear that his government will try to restore democracy, such as in Hungary.
“You can also feel the culture of not accepting policies in our community,” Vesel said. “The court of law, the ombudsperson, and the audit court are like a defense. If you are fighting your immune system, there are a number of diseases soon. ”
Protests take part in anti-government protests in Ljubljana on May 14 © Jure Makovec / AFP via Getty Images
Jansa and his partner, Interior Minister Ales Hojs, have criticized recent court rulings, including a court ruling, which ruled that restrictions imposed by the government were a violation of their human rights.
“In democratic countries, there should be a minimum limit for insulting judges but in Slovenia our government does not comply with these limits,” said Rok Ceferin, a court judge. “We are ridiculed, humiliated, and humiliated every time we give a ruling that is unpopular with the government, the prime minister and, at times, even his closest relatives.”
Jansa’s political career portrays Viktor Orban, a close ally in Hungary. All of them were anti-Communist freedom fighters who began to struggle to control the Euros.
Jansa was a young communist leader before being called into politics as an opposition in the late 1980s when Yugoslavia, of which Slovenia was a part, was liberated. He wrote the writings of Mladina, a youth book that he now insults in public, and was arrested in 1988 for allegedly writing articles about military secrets.
His arrest sparked major protests that many paid for his rapid democratic change in Slovenia.
Viktor Orban of Hungary and Jansa at the Slovenian Democratic Party contest © © Szilard Koszticsak / EPA-EFE
But in 2013, for the second time as Prime Minister, he was convicted of bribery in a arms dealership. The Constitutional Court reversed the ruling in 2015. But Jansa has been accusing the media of pushing him out of office.
When he returned to power for the third time in March last year, when the remaining coalition collapsed, he said.the war against the press are well received in Slovenia ”.
“Intolerance and hostility are created by a small group of female editors, family-connected and the capital with very deep pillars,” she wrote.
He has made a name for himself by attacking social media and social media on Twitter, making him the moniker of “Marshall Tweeto.”
Although much of the pressure comes through television, in what Vesel describes as a “well-organized and well-organized campaign” with “revolutionary systems”, the people of Slovenes are concerned that serious damage is taking place.
In March, the Slovenian Association of State Prosecutors he complained to the Council of Europe, the democratic watchdog in the region, of what it called “the most complex unresolved issues” with the courts. It also said that Jansa and her friends had publicly criticized her and banned several elections.
It also noted that the government had delayed the appointment of two delegates to Slovenia’s new European Prosecutor’s Office, which had been set up to monitor the misuse of EU funds. The EPPO is due to open on June 1, but must do so without Slovenian judges.
The commission said this was because the nominees were “pleased with the SDS [the Slovenian Democratic party] and their president Janez Jansa ”.
The government has not responded to a request for comment.
The prime minister has launched a crackdown on Slovenian state media (STA). It started shortly after the October 2020 meeting between Jansa and Orban, said Petra Lesjak Tusek, president of the Slovenian Press Association. The government lamented, he said, that the report of the meeting was too short. Soon, it stopped working for government funds.
“The agency is very close to repaying the loan,” said its editor-in-chief Barbara Strukelj.
Jansa has criticized STA, RTV, and even the world’s largest POP and other media outlets for spreading “lies”. The government says it wants to change the rules of the media “which are aimed at the press,” said Marko Milosavljevic, a professor of journalism at Ljubljana University.
He also said that Jansa follows Orban’s playbook by closing down the media’s criticism and ensuring that allies are in control of other outlets.
The Slovenian government adheres to “all Hungarian approaches, to their own guidance, and to the press”, he added.
Jansa resisted the government’s pressure on journalists.
In March, he argued with Sophie in T ‘Veld, a member of the European Parliament, at a video conference on democracy. He refused to let her play video stating that journalists are racist, Jansa accused him of investigating – and they are not affected call.
