The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 4 March 2022.
Mladina: SDS Abused Ukraine rally
STA, 4 March 2022 - After five rallies in support of Ukraine were organised in Slovenia after Russia attacked its neighbour, there was a sixth such rally on Wednesday that was organised by PM Janez Janša, who was also one of the key-note speakers, Mladina magazine says on Friday, adding that his SDS abused the hardships of Ukrainians for election gain.
After inviting everyone to the rally, Janša realised it was a bit odd that the prime minister, who has the power to express his views or protest in the political arena, would organise a civil society rally.
Janša, who thinks he is both an opposition leader and PM, and a national TV editor and its guest, then did what he knows best - he resorted to cheap political mimicry.
He found what was until then an unknown Ljubljana-Kyiv Culture Society to formally organise his protest, while everything - from the stage and PA system to the moderator - was taken care of by his Democratic Party (SDS).
Together with its coalition partners, the SDS abused the hardships of Ukrainians, from common people to their ambassador to Slovenia, to have an election rally, Mladina says, adding that Slovenia has not witnessed something so base for a while.
Protests against Russia's invasion of Ukraine are held across Europe and across the world, "but nowhere are they organised by prime ministers. Protests are a matter of the civil society. Well, there is one country where only protests organised by authorities are allowed. Its name is Russia."
Demokracija: Putin an alienated madman who cannot win
STA, 3 March 2022 - Commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Demokracija says that it seems that the "madman from the end of the conference table" has raised the stakes and started to play a game which he cannot withdraw from any longer.
After this reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the weekly says that "Putin is using Bolshevist methods to try to become the new Russian tzar."
This needs to be obvious, as advisors and guests must feel and be aware of his untouchability, and Putin seems to have already reached the level of a tyrant when his physical contact with other people becomes impossible.
"He is using proper spatial distancing because he is afraid of a Brutus from his own ranks," Demokracija adds under the headline Madman from the End of the Conference Table.
It adds that Putin is not a blessing for Russia, and that he could become a curse, just like all former officials of socialist secret services who climbed to the posts of country leaders.
Thirty years ago, Ukraine deliberately renounced nuclear weapons because it was counting on EU and NATO memberships, but its accession has been blocked mainly by Germany, which made concessions to Putin over the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
Demokracija notes that Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša was right when he said that "if the EU does not expand, something else will", and adds that the world is now on the brink of global conflict.
Putin is by no means a great statesman and leader, he is only a "lunatic who is flying high on the wings of the lukewarm warnings from the West."
So far, he has only managed to alienate himself from most of the world and show that the Russian army is not so powerful, as not even an overwhelming number of 5th-generation fighter jets cannot ensure full air supremacy, concludes the commentary.
All our posts in this series are here
