What Mladina & Reporter Are Saying This Week: Government Wrongdoing vs Čeferin

By , 01 May 2021, 12:37 PM Politics
What Mladina & Reporter Are Saying This Week:  Government Wrongdoing vs Čeferin Covers from the weeklies' social media

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The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 30 April 2021.

Mladina: Record and remember govt's wrongdoings

STA, 30 April 2021 - Mladina says in its latest commentary that the duty of the public and political parties is to encourage civil servants not to leave their posts and to instead watch and remember what the current government is doing so that the wrongdoings could be prosecuted once it inevitably steps down from power.

The left-leaning weekly quotes criminologist Dragan Petrovec, who said at Tuesday's anti-government rally that there was a "series of institutions where employees do not dare resist bullying, insults and abuse by their superiors."

Under the headline Secret Allies of the Public, it adds that Petrovec noted that capable people were leaving their jobs, while it would be better if they fought back and stayed at their posts.

Mladina adds that "people should start preparing for the moment when this government, which does not have public support and cannot win it back, tumbles down from power. Perhaps this will take one full year - but Slovenia must prepare for that moment already today."

The weekly argues that people need to prepare for the "cleansing from what has happened in the past year and what will happen in the coming months - the complete abuse of power."

It notes that in the coming few months, the government of Janez Janša is planning a number of "encroachments upon the state", including with the establishment of a tourism holding, adding that this is "nasty abuse and systemic corruption."

For this reason, it is important for individuals and social groups, including the police and prosecution, to start systemically collecting evidence about all of this. "Let them stay in drawers for now ... but let them be collected."

Mladina says that the public and political parties that understand how important this is and that themselves introduced stricter ethical standards should look up to Iceland as a good example.

"It is up to political parties that want public support in the next election to commit today ... that they will find the way for the information about wrongdoings could see the light of the day safely," concludes the commentary.

Reporter:  Schadenfreude for Čeferin in Slovenia

STA, 26 April 2021 - The right-wing weekly Reporter comments on the failed attempt by a dozen football clubs to establish their own Super League, saying the project found support in Slovenia because many could hardly hide their Schadenfreude for UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, a potential new player in Slovenian politics, thus a bogeyman for politicians on the right.

His being the head of a powerful international organisation makes him the most serious potential rival of Prime Minister Janez Janša if he decides to enter politics.

Čeferin's public objections and criticism of Janša have led many to believe that he is getting ready to return to Slovenia and become prime minister, the weekly says under the headline Schadenfreude.

When Super League clubs tried to sabotage Čeferin a week ago, it was bizarre to watch many Slovenian Twitter users siding with greedy rich men. Čeferin was being labelled a mafia lawyer, arrogant and even blamed for the clubs' attempt at defecting.

The attacks were the continuation of what started a few days earlier, when in an interview for the commercial broadcaster POP TV Čeferin criticised the fact that anti-government protesters are being punished in Slovenia.

"This is merely another battle in a war that started when Janša realised that Čeferin, being the head of a powerful international organisation, is in the perfect position to take over the top political position in the country."

However, the weekly doubts that this will indeed be the case. "Paradoxically, his victory against the Super League could delay Čeferin's return to Slovenia."

If the Super League were actually established, he might have returned earlier and still enjoyed great support for having fought billionaires' greed, Reporter says.

If he remains at the helm of UEFA until the end of term in March 2023 and then goes on to another high-profile job abroad, many politicians, not just Janša, will be relieved. "But a great number of undecided voters looking for a new saviour will be disappointed."

All our posts in this series are here

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