Protests and politics, June 2013

Interesting twist of events appeared, when the core of protest movement seemed depressed and already very small groups on radical margins were disintegrating even further. An association of responsible doctors approached the protest movement, investigating a possibility of collaboration. The growing membership of the “Iniciative-doctors” counts at present approximatly  half of the doctors, nurses and medical personal in Slovenia. Some of them were for years alarming the authorities and the  public about inefficient, corrupt, costly and slowly decaying national health care system. For twenty years the doctors  were unable to get governments to act on a necessary reform. Alarmed by the growing number of patients that found themselves outside the system and  the danger of imminent financial meltdown of the system, the doctors issued an ultimatum to the government to undertake the reforms that they are proposing. The demands of the doctors were easily understood by the representatives of the protest movement. So next uprising is going to back the doctors and patients demanding the right to health care. The protest is taking place on the June 25, when the nation celebrates the Statehood day. This in itself absurd holiday should at least be suspended until Slovenians prove to ourselves that we can run a state.