Mladina: Šarec has staked Slovenia's reputation with appointment of his security aide
STA, 21 September - By appointing "one of the most dangerous persons in the country" as his security aide, Prime Minister Marjan Šarec has put Slovenia's reputation at stake, the left-leaning Mladina asserts it the latest editorial.
Editor-in-chief Grega Repovž argues that Damir Črnčec should have been kept under the surveillance of intelligence services, for one thing, because he wilfully covered up neo-Nazi activity in the country.
"When a government decides to put such a man in such a position, it places the country among Europe's problematic countries.
"The prime minister can do such a thing for three reasons only: because he agrees with the man, because he is a political novice and an ignorant person, or because the man extorts him with certain information he has. All three options are bad, in home politics and for Slovenia's reputation."
Repovž argues that Paris is looking at Šarec from the aspect of his aide, who expresses opinions that would earn him prosecution in France, as they would in Germany.
"If Europe does not stop the trend, European countries will become increasingly militarised, first under the pretext of defence against refugees and alleged Islamisation, and then, as history teaches us, score settling will follow that sooner or later ends in war."
Repovž goes on to say that putting a man like Črnčec in such an important position is a "security provocation", wondering what is the message of the appointment to the Muslim community in the country.
"Such moves scare and radicalise minority representatives. Naming a person who instigates violence against the minority to such a position is madness, not just amateurism."
Under the headline ‘Words’, Repovž also says that words can kill; "People who wrote or uttered the things that Šarec's state secretary utters are responsible for the war in the former Yugoslavia. Vojislav Šešelj has not killed anyone but his words killed thousands ... Goebbels did not kill anyone with his hands."
Reporter: calls for stricter border control
STA, 17 September 2018 - The right-wing weekly Reporter says on Monday that stepping up control of the Schengen border should be one of the new government's top priorities, adding that illegal migration could be fatal for the government sworn in only last week.
By introducing stricter controls on the southern border, Slovenia would send a clear signal to people smugglers that the country was becoming as impenetrable as Hungary.
New Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar and his state secretary Damir Črnčec are expected to continue the work of their predecessors and even step up the measures, the paper says.
Stricter measures would likely boost the popularity rankings of the new government team and Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, and take the wind from the sales of those right-leaning parties that copy Viktor Orban's anti-migration policies, Reporter says.
But the paper implies that stricter policies will be imposed only if Šarec does not give in to the public uproar caused by the appointment of Črnčec, the paper says under the headline ‘Guardians of Southern Border’.
