6 . Temporary exhibition in the Museum of Slovenian Independence . Photo : Luka Cjuha , Dnevnik , 2023
After the elections in May 2022 , which were won by recently founded Svoboda ( Freedom ) party , the new government announced that all unreasonable decisions made by the previous government would be overturned . In October 2023 , the new government announced that it would merge the Museum of Independence with the Museum of Contemporary History to once again form a national museum dedicated to researching and presenting the nation ’ s history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries . It justified the creation of a new museum because both national museums had similar collection policies and both employed experts to perform the same public service tasks . In terms of transparency and the conflict over the collection of the same material , the new government argued that funding both institutions was an inappropriate use of public money .
The right wing reacted harshly by encouraging civil disobedience and declared that the new government was pushing the country back into the old totalitarian systems . The right-wing Association
for the Values of Slovenian Independence ( VSO ) strongly opposed the idea and declared that it would “ use all available democratic means ” to preserve the museum as an independent entity . In January 2023 , the two museums were merged and a new institution was established . This decision was supported by the largest veterans associations and most of the public . At the same time , Prime Minister Golob stressed that independence was the joint effort of the entire nation and not of any single political party , expressing the opinion that this topic should be left to historians . Two months after the hostile reactions of the right-wing parties and the announcement of the civil disobedience campaign , SDS filed a motion of interpellation against the government . The reason for the interpellation was the abolition of the independent Museum of Slovenian Independence and several actions that SDS deemed contrary to the provisions of the Slovenian Constitution .
We know that the frequency of government interpellations in any given country depends on its political context , but this was certainly the first time
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Observing Memories Issue 7