4 . Renovation of the old military building on Roška street ( Domobranska vojašnica ), where the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia will be located and where the government of Janez Janša wanted to set up the new Museum of Slovenian Independence . Photo : Nik Erik Neubauer , Dnevnik , 2023
The project of the Museum of Independence was announced in November 2020 . Despite the public ’ s reluctance , it was established by an Act of Government in March 2021 . The mission of the new institution was based on acquiring collections from the process of the democratisation of the Republic of Slovenia and the national struggle for independence . The Ministry of Culture announced that the museum would operate in the previously approved new premises of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia , which has not yet been built . The Ministry also stressed that the collection strategy of the new museum would be determined by qualified experts , appointing journalists , publicists , historians and a theologian to the museum board , all of whom were supporters of the government . In September , the newspaper Večer published an interview disclosing the name of the acting director of the new institute , who had never worked in a museum and , according to the regulations , did not meet the legal requirements to occupy the position .
The news about the opening of the new museum caused a stir among the public and professional
circles , with several institutions and almost 200 experts publishing an open letter strongly opposing the clearly ideologically based museum that seemed like a vanity project of the ruling party . The government ’ s repeated criticisms and accusations that Slovenian museology and historiography did not do enough to preserve the narrative and memory of the events that led to the creation of the independent country were directed primarily at the management of the Museum of Contemporary History . Public ( and politically motivated ) complaints about the lack of appropriate content appeared regularly , with information about the preparations for the thirtieth anniversary of independence . The latter , however , was in the domain of the government and its needs to consolidate the political and media discourse about who is responsible for the liberation of the country . Thirty years after the country achieved independence , the need to regulate the narrative about the Slovenian spring and the events during the war of independence became one of the government ’ s chief concerns . The fact that anticorona measures prohibited gatherings and public protests at the same time was convenient . Although
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Observing Memories Issue 7