By: Dr Metod Berlec
Last Wednesday, it became apparent that Robert Golob’s tenure as prime minister is measured in months, if not weeks, and that his political power is visibly waning, largely dissipating. None of his grand announcements before the potato holidays, such as the need to reconstruct the government and significantly reduce the number of ministries, have materialised.
The coalition partners SD and Levica, along with pressures from behind the scenes, forced him to abandon this intention, as he was entirely inconsistent with it. Just a year ago, he staunchly advocated for an increase in the number of ministries. Therefore, after a coalition meeting, he unconvincingly pledged at a press conference that the coalition remains not only united and solid but also the “sole barrier against sliding back into a state we do not want”. Of course, he was alluding to the times of the previous government. However, the scare tactics involving Janez Janša are no longer sufficient, as it turned out that Golob is entirely unsuitable for the position of prime minister. At the same time, he surrounded himself with advisers driven only by negative energy and a desire for revenge, lacking political sensibility. One such individual is undoubtedly former journalist Vesna Vuković, who was previously specialised in “media assassinations”. Today, as the General Secretary of the Gibanje Svoboda party, she confuses Golob with her frustrations, resentments, and conspiracy theories, leading him to politically unwise moves, much like his notorious partner Tina Gaber.
As a result, networks connected to the former party leader Milan Kučan are distancing themselves from Golob. They are seeking a replacement for him since Golob, as noted on the X network by Bojan Požar, has created a double danger for the Slovenian left with his collaborators; they have probably definitively and irreversibly destroyed the concept of new faces and established a situation leading the left towards defeat in the upcoming elections. This is undoubtedly confirmed by statements from some analysts in the media, as well as Monday’s Median poll in Delo, which showed a significant decline in support for both the Gibanje Svoboda party and its president and prime minister, Robert Golob. Janez Janša responded to this on the X network, stating that there is a political fall of the formally ruling coalition in the air. “The centres of power, whose existence they no longer hide, are in great nervousness seeking a replacement for Prime Minister Golob. With this, they want to prolong the rule of the incompetent coalition and gain time to create a ‘new’ face. The leaderships of the coalition parties SD and Levica actively participate in this. Resentment, anger, and the fury of the central centre of power have increased after the recent conflict between the Gibanje Svoboda and Nova Slovenija. This endangers their key political goal of this term – constitutional changes aimed at cementing the appointment of judges without publicity, changing the electoral system at the will of the transitional left, and introducing the possibility of selective decision-making in the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia.” According to Janša, the nervousness of the unelected centres of power is even greater because, due to the chaotic situation among the deputies of the Gibanje Svoboda, replacing Golob as prime minister may fail, and preliminary elections could happen sooner than they are prepared for.
Similarly, in an exclusive interview for our magazine, the president of the SDS council and founder of the Platform for Cooperation, Anže Logar, shares his thoughts, emphasising that he is not convinced of a swift conclusion to the mandate of the current government coalition. At the same time, he expects that the prime minister will be replaced by a “technical mandate”. “Golob will go, that is almost certain. He still has to accept the 10-billion law on reconstruction so that his successor will not have to deal with the adoption of a non-transparent law of epic proportions. As an introduction to his term, the new technical prime minister will have a legal basis for high spending of taxpayers’ money. In such circumstances, there will not be much interest in an early end to the mandate.” In the coming weeks and months, according to Janša, we can expect anything but a stable environment for the necessary reforms and reconstruction after the August disaster. Therefore, Slovenia urgently needs to strategically stabilise its internal situation. “The only democratic path to this solution is preliminary elections to the National Assembly and then the formation of a strong and operational Government of the Republic of Slovenia capable of addressing internal and external challenges and independent of unelected centres of power. For now, only the SDS party has a team gathered around the recently appointed strategic council of the SDS. SDS is capable of taking responsibility successfully tomorrow without a lengthy introduction. For elections and beyond, it will be necessary to attract many who, despite their undisputed ability and moral integrity, have so far avoided working for the common good within the executive branch. There is a lot of lost time…”