Večer scolds opposition for abusing floods for promotion
Ljubljana, 10 August - Večer says in Thursday's commentary that the opposition has failed when it comes to the dilemma of whether a politician should show up and be photographed in areas hit by a natural disaster, as people do not care for their calculations while they are saving their homes.
"The leader of the opposition, for example, failed this test before he even picked up the shovel," the newspaper says in The Bad and the Ugly in a Catastrophe.
Referring to Janez Janša, the head of the Democratic Party (SDS), Večer adds that a "network of his party media, exposed politicians and scores of online trolls made a mess across the web as he spoke of the need to connect, cooperate and put party interests aside."
They made discrediting remarks, lied, raged, manipulated and even mentioned the Waters Act, while forgetting to mention that it was the previous, Janez Janša government that abolished the climate change office and attacked environmental legislation with all means.
"Gentlemen, the victims of the floods do not care about you, your calculations, about laws, about government, about your political swamp. They were saving lives, their houses, businesses, bridges, roads, neighbours, friends."
It was for this reason that one could not avoid a very bad feeling when opposition party members appeared in rubber boots and muddy clothes, some even in the company of members of the far right, and immediately published snapshots on social media.
"What is even more perverse is that a man who builds a large part of his political persona on the claim that climate change is a lie and a left-wing conspiracy appears with a shovel in front of the camera lens," Večer says.
The paper wonders whether Janša explained his conspiracy theories and stories that an ice age was coming to those whose lives were brought to a halt and altered by climate change.
It is thus right that, instead of using shovels, they help strengthen the country's resilience in the face of similar looming disasters and start cooperating in parliament, with the welfare of the citizens in mind, concludes the commentary.