By: Dr Metod Berlec
Last December (December 16th, 2021), the current Prime Minister, Robert Golob, at the Šiška Cinema, in a public forum entitled “In what country do we want to live?”, as the then former chairman of the board of Gen-I, called the ruling centre-right policy (Janša’s government) fascist. He literally said that in the case of the ruling politics, it is not a matter of mature right-wing politics within the framework of a Western European country and added that based on his experience from Primorska region, where he comes from, he knows that “this is not right-wing politics, but fascism”. “And I think that is enough. It is good to drive them away. Away! Away from our governing bodies!”
He made similar comments a month later (January 17th, 2022) in an interview with the left-wing Mladina magazine: “I was talking about politics that promotes hatred and fear. I have made it clear that this is not serious right-wing politics for me. This is an important distinction. I would equally reject any policy, which could be called left-wing, that would promote hatred, anger, and insecurity among people. /…/ It is certainly not the purpose of right-wing politics to promote hatred, division, and anger between people. That is not right-wing politics to me. In Primorska region, where we have this historical experience, we called and still call politics that promotes hatred and fear fascism. We, locals of Primorska, were once victims of such hatred. Today, we are actually even worse off, because this hatred is encouraged between people within the same country.” Golob was speaking about the government, which was sworn in at the time of the outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemic and, with its ten anti-coronavirus legislative packages, ensured that all sections of the population, including the economy, survived this crisis more easily.
Well, he himself then won in the spring of last year with the help of insurgents led by Jaša Jenull, Jarc, and others, who, with their aggressiveness in Ljubljana’s squares and streets, resembled the squaddies from the time of Mussolini’s rise to power in the early 1920s. An important role was played in this (similarly to in Italy) by the dominant media, which, under the influence of (post-)communist godfathers from the background and left-wing owners of capital, supported the so-called new face. Then on April 24th last year, Robert Golob won the National Assembly elections overwhelmingly with his Gibanje Svoboda party. In June last year, his coalition government was sworn in, consisting of the parties GS, SD, and Levica. Ever since then, we have witnessed incredible purges of ministries, public administration, public institutions and state-owned or partly state-owned companies. The government abolished the Museum of Slovenian Independence and the Museum of Recent History of Slovenia and merged them into the Museum of Recent and Contemporary History of Slovenia. The former directors (Jože Dežman and Željko Oset) were literally thrown out onto the street last week. At the same time, with an amendment to the law on RTV Slovenia, they tried to overthrow the current management, but so far, they have not succeeded, as the case has been put on hold by the Constitutional Court. But the latter has been the target of incredible political pressure (public and behind the scenes) for the last few months, which we have not experienced before during the independent Republic of Slovenia. The Prime Minister repeats weekly that he expects the Constitutional Court to make a quick decision in the case of the amendment to the RTVS Act, and his party colleague and President of the National Assembly Urška Klakočar Zupančič is actively interfering in this matter, which we write about in detail in the magazine; from inspection of the court file to her request for the removal of constitutional judge Klemen Jaklič.
With all this, it can be seen that Robert Golob rules in a populist, egocentric, authoritarian and exclusionary manner, without any empathy for people. He thinks only he is right. That the history of Slovenia begins with him. If someone is disobedient, he replaces him. Former Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar experienced this first hand, who, in his opinion, did a bad job of “purging” Janša’s government personnel. The former Acting Director General of the Police Boštjan Lindav had a similar experience. Because he caught Golob lying in a public report, he was transferred to the police station in Škofja Loka. No office was found for him in Ljubljana. Last week, Golob publicly criticised the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, saying that it did not adequately present the tax reform to the Slovenian public. That is why State Secretary Tilen Božič resigned. How can they present the reform, if Golob himself does not know what it should be, not to mention the other reform announcements that he so casually improvises, not to mention the analyses and timelines. In doing so, he behaves in the style of the Sun King: “The country, this is me.” The former president of the USA, Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote a long time ago that it is “fascism when you own the country as an individual”. And how right he was!