By Domen Mezeg (Nova24tv.si)
Siol editor Peter Jančič wrote about Golob’s purges in a column entitled “Fear because of Golob’s children”. As he states, the children of state and other officials are becoming a good springboard for discrediting. He also cites the case of Aleksandra Pivec and a cancelled hotel bill with the names of the former minister’s minor children. Golob, who was in Brussels with his children during the national celebration on National Day, could find himself in a similar situation, which has now been confirmed by the Government Communication Office.
“The function of the Prime Minister requires significant adjustments in private and official life. Due to numerous trips abroad, the Prime Minister will occasionally take family members on the trip,” Ukom responded to Siol’s inquiries. You can be sure that if the former Prime Minister Janez Janša had taken his children on a business trip, the pro-government media such as 24ur and other Odlazek’s branches would have burned out with indignation.
Officials in Brussels, however, fear that Prime Minister Robert Golob could retaliate for “leaking” this sensitive information. Officials explicitly asked Siol editor Peter Jančič to hide the source of the information. Namely, Golob is supposed to remove “everything alive”, and even those closest to him in Slovenia could lose their jobs. After a few weeks of the new government, we are already witnessing a personnel tsunami, which we do not recollect in Slovenia. In the case of the affair of the former Minister of Agriculture Aleksandra Pivec, it was a matter of children accompanying her on a visit to Primorska region, and the cost of living was covered by the municipality.
In Golob’s case, however, it is not even about transporting his children at the expense of the state on a luxury plane, etc. Supposedly, the mere fact that he was on a business trip with his children was extremely dangerous for him in case the information came to light. Golob’s government, as already mentioned, is accelerating the purge (personnel tsunami) in all areas. In the past week, it prematurely dismissed two SSH supervisors in parliament, with the aim of gaining additional influence in state-owned companies. However, fear, according to Jančič, is the wrong response.
It is in these days that we remember the creation of our country. With the disintegration of the former common state, there were also thoughts on how to end decades of communist dictatorship, most recently under the leadership of the last party leader, Milan Kučan. “If we were so afraid then, this country would not exist,” said editor of Siol. Jančič sees some similarities with the time. Kučan, who explicitly supported Golob during the election campaign, is returning, and the new government craves similar power as the communists had in the former totalitarian system. They will try to ensure full control over all branches of government, as well as the economy and the public media.
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Every trace of plurality would be erased from the latter. In this spirit, together with Danilo Türk, who was distinguished, among other things, by the former regime’s secret police chief Tomaž Ertl, he has already explicitly supported Nataša Pirc Musar as a candidate for president. Early political changes at the top of SSH are part of the strategy to achieve complete control. Golob intends to subjugate large state-owned companies as soon as possible, and thus, in addition to well-paid positions, to influence even more the central media, which they call “depoliticisation”. At the same time, they are planning a complete subordination of the police, which will focus on opponents of the political left.
That opposition representatives have been persecuted in the past is a well-known story. Janez Janša, Franc Kangler, etc. were especially on the spotlight. By subordinating the media, however, the ruling coalition is doing exactly what the previous government was hysterically accused of in Brussels. Let us also recall how Marjan Šarec tried to influence the directors of companies, saying that they should reconsider which media they finance. State-owned Telekom is also under the auspices of SSH. And during the government of Miro Cerar, it started to finance POP TV abundantly. During Janša’s government, however, this funding was reduced. This largest commercial TV in the country is otherwise a central supporter of the current Prime Minister and KUL.
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Family ties, however, also exist at the very top. “It is not just a joke that the country is ruled by birds today: Koses (blackbirds) and Golobs (pigeons),” added Jančič playfully. Uncle from the background Drago Kos is married to the editor-in-chief of the POP TV news programme Tjaša Slokar Kos, and his sister Marta Kos has an important position in the Gibanje Svoboda party. It is also known that the new police chiefs have their private partners in the journalistic ranks on POP TV. They have already reported on what is happening in the country in quite interesting ways. By subordinating SSH, the coalition can also abolish the financing of all those media that are not “theirs”. It is definitely disproportionately less money, even change, compared to what POP TV receives.
In the past, both SSH and the Supervisory Board of Telekom were led by Golob’s Lidia Glavina, when payments were raised and thus saved the profits of Pro Plus. Recall that she later got a job at “Golob’s” Gen-I. She was even financially rewarded for re-employment. In addition to SSH, Golob also wants to take over a bad bank. This also has an impact on the media, as it owns a large share of the media empire of garbage tycoon Martin Odlazek. He is also a key ally of Golob and the KUL Coalition, once also Šarec’s. After the election, of course, bills are issued. Odlazek’s auspices include a multitude of radio stations, the Necenzurirano portal and, for example, Večer. Odlazek allegedly wrote to a bad bank, saying that he would also like to come to his own company.
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The taxpayers would restore the company, and Odlazek, who took the wrong road, bought it cheaply because “his” people are in power. The media are a key lever for maintaining power and propaganda. Politician Golob, of course, intends to “depoliticise” the public RTVS as well, somehow with the help of loyal striking socio-political workers. With subtitles: in the background is the intention to remove the “too right” management of the public house RTV. Many RTVS journalists want more “freedom”. Some of them have even turned into MPs in the past – the Gibanje Svoboda party. Such an example is Kučan’s fan Mojca Pašek Šetinc, where she lobbies for everyone on RTVS to become as “independent” as she is.
There is a well-known crowd of journalists who have switched from the biggest televisions, especially to the left political options. What is especially bizarre on RTVS is that the trade unionists play the role of editors and prepare programmes, including the president of the strike committee, Helena Milinković. The public house thus became a trumpet for communicating union demands. The management, which prevented them from abusing the public media, blamed the union boss for the censorship, even though the management simply did not want to break the law. And all this is happening under the guise of “depoliticisation”. The union abuse of the public house is valued as a great value, and the fair conduct of the management is characterised by crime and censorship.