3. J ANEZ J ANŠA
4.2. Description and Analysis of the Anti-government Movement
4.2.1. Legal Loopholing and Asserting the Right to Protest
The protest method most closely associated with the 2020 anti-government movement are bicycle protests. On Friday, 24 April, a protest called “From Balconies to Bicycles” was organised by more than twenty groups.210 While the protest was announced earlier in the week, protesters were largely mobilised by the national broadcaster’s programme that aired the night before the protest. On Thursday, 23 April, the national broadcaster RTV Slovenia aired the programme Tarča (Target) which revealed issues surrounding the way protective equipment was bought during the pandemic.211 The personal intervention of politicians in the purchases of equipment and the favouring of specific companies was widely interpreted as an abuse of power and corruption. This programme caused outrage and mobilised a large
number of people to join the protest the following day. The next day, the fourth protest and the first bicycle protest took place, which was coordinated by several different initiatives and individuals through social media.212 Many of the calls to protest were made in two Facebook groups, created after the Tarča broadcast for the support of Ivan Gale, the whistle-blower who revealed the details of the purchase of protective equipment.213 The protest was carried out on bicycles, as bicycles allowed protesters to participate while technically complying with the measures restricting social contact.214 Bicycles became a steady feature of the protests and the wider movement, even as restrictions eased in the late spring and many joined the protests on foot.
210 Ibid.
211 Ibid.
212 Larisa Daugul, Gorazd Kosmač, and Bojana Rugelj, “Protestniki Parlamentu Obrnili Hrbet,” RTV SLO, May 29, 2020, https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/protestniki-parlamentu-obrnili-hrbet/525531.
213 Miha Zavrtanik, “Protivladne Protestnike Na Trgu Republike Pričakal Policijski Trak,” RTV SLO, April 27, 2020, https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/protivladne-protestnike-na-trgu-republike-pricakal-policijski-trak/522021.
214 Tilen Jamnik, Jaša Rajšek, and Bojana Rugelj, “Janša: Če Bi Bili Ukrepi Slabi, Kaviar Socialisti Včeraj Ne Bi Mogli Kolesariti,” RTV SLO, May 9, 2020, https://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/jansa-ce-bi-bili-ukrepi-slabi-kaviar-socialisti-vceraj-ne-bi-mogli-kolesariti/523275.
Artists and cultural workers played an important part in organising these inventive protests and sophisticated protest tactics. Commenting on the forms of protest such as laying down paper soles and crosses to mark protesters and riding bicycles through the capital, Mladina editor-in-chief Grega Repovž states that these were not only respectful of the epidemiological situation at the time, but also ‘an expression of the high sophistication of the protesters’.215 These protest tactics can be read as a display of the power of the public, of their ability to outsmart the authorities, and, thus, of their collective intellectual upper hand.
As such, the legal loopholing and ingenuity of the protest tactics were in themselves an expression of dissent. By protesting in such conditions, protesters reasserted their
fundamental right to protest and to express disagreement. Furthermore, while the inventive protest methods conveyed the message that citizens will find a way to protest regardless of the restrictions or fines, they also revealed how undemocratic and disproportional the government’s measures were.
In relation to the legacy of the eighties, the protest methods designed to technically comply with the government’s measures, which were met with disproportional and even brutal treatment from police, revealed the stark contrast between protesting in the eighties, and now. Responding to the “Footsteps of Resistance” protest and the police’s treatment of protesters, Repovž describes that on that day, the police did something that had never happened before in Slovenia: they treated people expressing their political opinions as offenders.216 Repovž contextualises the significance of these unprecedented incidents for the Slovenian cultural and historical context:
215 Grega Repovž, “Pravica Do Protesta,” Mladina, April 30, 2020, https://www.mladina.si/198016/pravica-do-protesta/.
That is the kind of expression of political opinions on which this country is founded.
And the founding act of this country based on the expression of protesting opinions dates back to 1988, and more specifically to May of that year, when the Four were arrested. All the political authorities so far have understood that in this country, protest is a very serious matter. All of us who protested in 1988, even those of us who were minors at the time, have known ever since that it is our inalienable right to express our opinion and to show our opposition to the authorities.217
Similarly, Trampuš describes that when demonstrations were held in front of the military court on Roška Street in protest of the imprisonment of the Four, nobody bothered the crowd, the police acted correctly and did not prosecute the protesters.218 Therefore, what was particularly striking was that something that the Communist Party did not dare to do in Slovenia in 1988 was now taking place in 2020.219 Repovž adds that the public is particularly sensitive to duplicity, and asserts that it is ironic that Janez Janša, a man whose freedom and political career have largely been rooted in protests should despise the protests so much.220 The legacy of the eighties can thus be found in the protesters’ resolve to assert their right to protest, and the inventive forms of dissent that technically complied with the restrictions.
Moreover, the important role of artists and cultural workers in carrying out these forms of protest mirrors the key role of art and culture in the Alternative movement. Finally, the shadow of the eighties looms over the government’s measures and the police’s treatment of protesters, which are harsher and arguably less democratic than they were in a
non-democratic socialist country over 30 years ago.
217 Ibid.
218 Jure Trampuš, “Konec Svobode,” Mladina, April 30, 2020, https://www.mladina.si/198056/konec-svobode/.
219 Ibid.
220 Repovž, “Pravica Do Protesta.”