Slovenian opposition MP angers Germany with Nazi parallel – EURACTIV.com
After Sunday’s defeat of the right-wing Slovenian Democratic Party, a senior member of the party compared the situation in Slovenia to Germany in 1933, to which the German embassy responded.
Commenting on the results of the referendum, MP Branko Grims expressed doubt that the people were fully aware of the decisions they were making and said that “situations in Slovenia are becoming more and more similar to those in Germany in 1933” after the media succeeded in turning the campaign into an ideology and personal prejudices.
“As the German Embassy, we have some knowledge of German history and allow ourselves a brief comment,” the German Embassy said in a statement on Monday titled 2022 Slovenia is not 1933 Germany. The embassy also made a list of what happened in 1933: Adolf Hitler took power, the Dachau concentration camp was built, the separation of powers was dismantled and fundamental rights were abolished.
Slovenia, on the other hand, is a country “firmly rooted in the EU”, where “everyone can freely express their opinion, choose between a wide range of parties in elections, freely choose their religion, vote in referendums without pressure or fear”. As such, it has “nothing to do with the Germany of 1933.”
“Such comparisons are not only unfounded, but also dangerous, as they belittle the events that followed the rise of the National Socialists to power,” they wrote.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)