By: Dr Metod Berlec
The Slovenian transitional left has been more or less successfully maintaining its grip on power for a decade and a half through so-called “new faces.”
After the no-confidence vote that hit Pahor’s government in September 2011 in the National Assembly, the post-communist network, led by the last head of the party, Milan Kučan, pulled out former Mercator director and Ljubljana mayor Zoran Janković from its sleeve. Let’s just recall the pathetic pilgrimage of Forum 21 members to the Ljubljana City Hall. With Positive Slovenia, Janković won the parliamentary elections in December of the same year, but he was unable to form a government.
After the politically motivated collapse of the second Janša government with the help of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC), the leadership of the new left-wing government was taken over by Alenka Bratušek. However, the Murgle network sent constitutional lawyer and former external advisor to the National Assembly, Miro Cerar, as its main favourite for victory after sending SDS leader Janez Janša to prison. In the 2014 elections, Cerar won convincingly with his party SMC and formed a government with SD and DeSUS. However, he did not fare well as prime minister and resigned prematurely in March 2018. As an additional political player on the left, the network sent comedian, Kamnik mayor, and 2017 presidential candidate Marjan Šarec to the elections in mid-2018. While he did not win the elections, as he was defeated by Janša’s SDS, his LMŠ party still received the most votes among left-wing parties. Šarec formed a coalition government (LMŠ, SMC, DeSUS, and SAB). In late January 2020, he quit politics, and the third Janša government followed. In the 2022 parliamentary elections, the so-called new face, long-time CEO of Gen-I Robert Golob, won convincingly. He is the person who built his media image with the help of advertising money from the state company he led, promoting it in virtually all Slovenian media.
Now we are witnessing a situation where the network is media-promoting yet another so-called “new face”, this time in the form of former Kočevje mayor, presidential candidate, and newly elected Member of the European Parliament, Vladimir Prebilič. Recently, he was publicly supported by former presidents Milan Kučan and Danilo Türk in the Delo podcast. They both wisely commented that counting on new faces is outdated and that Prebilič is not a new face. Well, neither were Janković, Cerar, Šarec, or Golob truly new faces, as they had all been around on the Slovenian political scene for a long time, one way or another. Now, once again, under the direction of the deep state, a “new face” is being pushed forward, which does not suit Golob, as he wants to maintain primacy on the left. He is seriously considering early elections with Gibanje Svoboda. However, before that, he must resign, which is always a risky move.