Protesters announced another protest rally for Thursday, the 5th of September, in Ljubljana. Lubej did not want to announce a number of participants expected at the protest. He did add though, that the protest would not be reported to the police. "We have a constitutional right to assemble and we will take advantage of it", he added.
What do protesters demand?
Marko Golob, a former member of the Capital Assets Management Agency and board member of the Committee for a society of justice and solidarity (OPS) and the Solidarity party, laid down a number of reasons for the protests, among which the fact that a lot of companies where the state is the main shareholder, or has a controlling share, work below their potential mostly due to catastrophic management.
Protesters therefore demand that these interest groups, which have kidnapped the state, plundered the common wealth, impoverished the people, and stolen the future from the young, be exposed, neutralized and removed. They demand that state companies be run by the most professional, moral and unblemished individuals. They demand clear criteria for staff appointments, as well as transparent goals and business for every state company.
Rus: Moving closer to zero tolerance
Andrej Rus, a supporter of Solidarity and a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, reminds us that this system of political appropriation is in place for 20 years now. What's interesting now is the fact that the public has matured and is now strongly rejecting this. "We had very wide tolerance at one point, but now we're moving closer towards a state of zero tolerance, which is good" he assessed.
Calls for joining the protest were also sent to the Slovenian Coordinating committee for culture, to the Workers and Punks' University, to the Civil Initiative SRP - Slovenia, Truth, Honesty! and to the TRS party for the Sustainable Development of Slovenia.
Saša Banjanac Lubej, MMC; translated by K.J.