President of Slovenia expresses surprise at the recent statements by the European People's Party (EPP) concerning the decoration of Mr Toma¾ Ertl

Ljubljana, 15.12.2009  |  press release

The EPP Press Release of 8 December 2009, quoting Joseph Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP group, as well as the Emergency Resolution on totalitarian communist regimes, adopted by the EPP Congress in Bonn on 10 December, refer to Mr Toma¾ Ertl, whom the President of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, has recently decorated with the Silver Order of Merit. However, those statements do not mention the reasons for the decoration. Therefore, the President wishes to draw attention to the fact that Mr Ertl was decorated on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of "Akcija Sever" (Operation North) carried out by the Slovene Police forces in Autumn 1989.The Operation succeeded in protecting Slovenia against a violent rally that was being organized by the Serb extreme nationalists guided by Slobodan Milo¹eviæ. This police operation was a major enterprise involving more than 6000 police officers and other personnel, who thus protected the safety and security of the people of Slovenia - as well as Slovenia's democratic transformation, which was, at the time, still fragile and unable to protect itself against violence. Operation Sever is regarded in Slovenia, as a major contribution to the peace and democracy in our country. Mr Ertl, who was Minister of Interior in 1989, as well as Dr Toma¾ Èas and Mr Leopold Jesenek (two other leading officials of the Slovene interior ministry of the time) were therefore proposed for decoration by the Organization of police veterans, who rightly pride themselves with their contribution to the independence, prosperity and democratic transformation of Slovenia. The President decorated all three on 1 December 2009, the date of the 20th anniversary of the successful conclusion of the operation, with the silver order of merit, which is awarded specifically for merit in the areas of defence and security.

These facts have been completely ignored both in the Emergency Resolution on totalitarian communist regimes as well as in the statement by Mr Daul. Instead, the statements refer to the immaterial fact that Mr Ertl had previously been "Chief of the Secret communist police - Udba", which gives a misleading impression about the reasons for the decoration. The said resolution also compares Udba with Stasi in East Germany or Securitate in Romania. While there may have been similarities among these organizations in the more distant past - a matter for historians to discuss - they certainly did not exist in 1989- when the police in Slovenia protected the country and its democratic transformation - without bloodshed. Therefore the mentioned comparison is completely off the mark.

More generally, the EPP needs to know that communism has long been dead and buried in Slovenia, and that creating false debates about its alleged restoration makes absolutely no sense today. The President understands that it might be tempting for some of the Slovene opposition parties to generate such a debate, but even a short moment of thought is sufficient to make it clear that such a proposition is simply silly. Moreover, both the EPP and Mr Daul MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group, will be amused to learn that the same parties who have brought the decoration of Mr Ertl to the attention of EPP had last year agreed that Mr Ertl be made an honorary citizen of Jesenice, a town in North West Slovenia. It is sometimes worth reminding ourselves that "all politics is local" (as Tip O'Neill famously remarked) - and, President Türk would add, "that local politics is often less consistent and serious than it should be." END

Ljubljana, 15.december.2009