The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 11 June 2021. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here
Mladina: Amateurish vaccination campaign
STA, 11 June 2021 – Mladina, the left-wing weekly, says in its latest editorial that Slovenia is running out of people interested in vaccination against Covid-19 and that the government has failed this key test due to "complete amateurism" in the public promotion of vaccination.
"There are almost no more candidates for vaccination, and we are not even at 40% yet", the weekly says under the headline Failed Vaccination, adding that this is not happening in any other country in Europe.
The government has failed the key test as it had promised a 70% vaccination rate at the beginning of June - this was an exaggeration, of course, because they wanted to get the public going, but no one expected such a poor result.
Mladina adds that the failure comes even though virtually all media have supported the campaign, in addition to the entire political class, public personalities and celebrities, who have been calling on people to get vaccinated.
"What has gone wrong," the weekly wonders, suggesting that the main problem for the government in the promotion of vaccination is "complete amateurism".
"It is already clear that they have created a simple, actually stupid public vaccination promotion campaign, that they have failed to make analyses by individual social and age groups, which is why they address the public as a whole, in the media."
For this reason, Mladina argues that anti-vaxxers and the malicious media are not the main problem of the vaccination fiasco, but "the government simply failing to do its job", which is why the number of vaccinated people is so low.
As one of the top Slovenian communication expert, who wants to remain anonymous because the current government is known for holding grudges, said: "This is so Slovenian: everybody who has power is interfering in everything."
"They always look to blame the people, whom they perceive as stupid and mislead, and who do not want to obey," Mladina quotes the expert, adding that this does not apply only to vaccination.
Reporter: SDS gearing up for election
STA, 7 June 2021 - The right-wing political magazine Reporter argues in Monday's editorial that recent actions by the ruling Democrats (SDS) indicate the party is preparing for an election, be it a snap election or a regular vote.
In a commentary entitled Pre-election Discreditation, the magazine lists two instances that it believes indicate the party is in campaign mode.
First, the SDS has started to demonise the Left, which serves to fire up its own electoral base rather than to reach across the isle.
"If [the Left] became an unacceptable coalition partner for the remaining left parties, the SDS would jump in and forge a grand coalition with them. But this is just wishful thinking by strategists on the right," according to Reporter.
And secondly, Požareport recently singled out two senior SDS MPs, Brako Grims and Jože Tanko, among MPs who may have cast invalid ballots in the recent attempt to oust Speaker Igor Zorčič.
"Just like before any election, a battle for 'electable' districts is already raging in the SDS. Grims and Tanko may be veterans and among the most high-profile MPs, but both are considered 'difficult' persons and some in the SDS would renounce them without feeling bad about it.
"Once discredited, they have fewer arguments for a new bid for a district that practically guarantees SDS deputies they will be elected to the National Assembly," the paper concludes.
All our posts in this series are here
