By: Peter Jančič
Although Janez Janša has not yet been elected prime minister for the fourth time and has not yet proposed his ministers, everything in parliament is already prepared for it. So far, only Janez Drnovšek has managed to lead the government four times. Tomorrow, Nataša Avšič Bogovič from Svoboda will be elected opposition vice‑president of the National Assembly, and Svoboda will also take over the leadership of the Budgetary Oversight Commission. The fact that the largest opposition party will once again oversee the government marks a major change compared to the previous term, when Svoboda, SD and Levica prevented SDS, as the largest opposition party, from doing so. Because the right‑wing coalition is not behaving in the same petty and un‑statesmanlike way, the country is returning to normality.
Parliament is also returning to normality in other ways. With the intervention law, the new majority is abolishing several oddities of the previous government, for example, pensioners will no longer have to pay one percent of their pensions to improve the liquidity of Minister Klemen Boštjančič. Their pensions were reduced through the long‑term care contribution last year, yet long‑term care was not provided to those who needed it. Because of this, €140 million ended up at the Ministry of Finance in the first months alone, supposedly to improve budget liquidity, even though the ministry itself admitted it did not need this money for liquidity. It was simply surplus.
The long‑term care system collapsed already at the level of the IT system, because it did not exist. They collected the money but failed to deliver even the most basic elements. This is what happens when you create a new political ministry just to give a job to a left‑wing activist, Simon Maljevac, along with a group of friends who enjoyed themselves, on the couches. The entire Golob government operated in a similar way. In 2022 it spent €13.5 billion, in 2023 €14.8 billion, in 2024 €15.4 billion, and last year €17.1 billion. The €1.5‑billion increase in the final year before the election had a simple purpose: to buy the election. They failed even at that.
Alongside the dramatic increase in spending, they also raised taxes and contributions, which will have long‑term consequences. Now, when the new majority is trying to reduce the burden on people by roughly half a billion, we hear warnings that the state will go bankrupt. From those who increased spending by €1.5 billion last year to buy voters. And from the media, which mostly remained silent, because some of that money flowed into their pockets as well.
We will also witness the removal of irrationalities in healthcare, where the new majority is abolishing the monopoly of state healthcare when it comes to the money, we all contribute for our own treatment. The legalisation of this monopoly, partially struck down by the Constitutional Court, meant that you paid, but did not receive treatment. Because the state healthcare system, whose leadership is appointed by those in power, simply cannot provide it. You pay, but you do not get anything. Just like with long‑term care. Many people do not even have a personal doctor. Only a long waiting line. And quick help often comes only if you reach into your pocket and pay privately, even though you already paid the state insurer. Paying twice. Mandatory and mandatory extra. Can anyone imagine a bigger scam?
The adoption of the law, which merely corrects the biggest mistakes of the previous government, was described by Svoboda MP Lenart Žavbi, who defected from Levica, as “Janšism, fascism with the most idiotic face so far”.
Levica, meanwhile, calls it a project for the rich. The outgoing coalition parties are even announcing a legislative referendum ahead of tomorrow’s vote, the same kind we saw four years ago when they increased the number of ministries by five and carried out the biggest media purge in history by prematurely replacing all supervisors, programme council members, directors and key editors at RTV Slovenia. With that law, they even threw ordinary journalists out onto the street for political reasons and replaced them with left‑wing activists from Mladina and even high‑school students.
These political purges in the country’s largest media outlet, which, incidentally, has rather low viewership, were not criticised by President Nataša Pirc Musar, one of the many left‑wing politicians created by that very outlet. To name just a few: Tanja Fajon, Marjan Šarec, Mojca Pašek Šetinc, Violeta Tomić… Yet on World Press Freedom Day she criticised the proposal for a different model of financing RTV Slovenia, originally put forward last year by Resni.ca, which would abolish the mandatory licence fee and shift funding entirely to the state budget. According to Pirc Musar, such state‑budget financing would turn RTV Slovenia into a state television. But not the political purges, where her political camp installed its people at the top, and lower down. Žan Mahnič (SDS) called her a “commie” for this hypocrisy. More than ten million euros in additional budget funding for RTV Slovenia were already secured last year by Svoboda, SD and Levica through amendments to the RTV Act. Pirc Musar did not criticise that “transfer”. When her side does it, she stays silent; when others do, it is the end of the world. Imagine how she would react if the current coalition rushed through a law to immediately remove all programme council members, directors and editors at RTV Slovenia and throw out a bunch of journalists who are not “ours” because they are politically closer to former TV Slovenia journalist Pirc Musar herself.
Mahnič’s “commie” remark sent left‑wing MPs and media into orbit, Žavbi, for example. Žavbi may call right‑wing politicians fascists, but calling his side “commies” is forbidden. Especially Pirc Musar, who was nominated for president by Milan Kučan, once the leader of our Communist Party and the socialist regime in which all other parties were banned. On the other side, there is no comparable historical connection behind the accusations of fascism.
We will get an additional glimpse of media freedom this week during Eurovision in Vienna, where RTV Slovenia will not be present and will not broadcast the event. Socialist Yugoslavia was the only country in the Eastern Bloc that dared to broadcast and participate in Eurovision. We were somewhat closer to Europe than the rest of the bloc. Even the borders were more open.
Today, when we are no longer in socialism, we have censorship, for the interests of foreigners, at the request of left‑wing parties who side with Palestine in the Middle East conflict. A conflict triggered by the utterly inhumane actions of Palestinians from Gaza, who have become the primary victims of the brutal war they unleashed. Our current position is also reflected in the fact that, after the fiasco with Tomaž Vesel, the outgoing government nominated Marta Kos as European Commissioner, a former journalist who, as Igor Omerza has documented in detail, worked for the secret political police of the communist regime. At least, unlike former Delo editor‑in‑chief and Positive Slovenia MP Mitja Meršol, close to Zoran Janković, she no longer boasts about having worked for the secret service of a totalitarian Eastern state while serving as a correspondent in Western Europe. In those days, correspondents were typically required to do so. That is dictatorship, no independent press.
To be blunt: President Nataša Pirc Musar is wrong when she insists the RTV licence fee must remain, and Zoran Stevanović of Resni.ca is also wrong when he proposes full budget financing. Forcing everyone to pay for a media outlet that carried out a political purge, one supported by most of its own journalists, and that engages in political activism for foreign interests (whether Palestinian or Israeli) is fundamentally wrong. Those who believe such a media outlet serves an important role should pay for it. They can even pay more than the current fee if they wish. But voluntarily. Not everyone, because it does not serve everyone.
I believe such a biased service is not worth a cent from my pocket.
But I will still have to pay for it. Just as we must pay for long‑term care that does not exist, pay twice for healthcare because we cannot get to a personal doctor or gynaecologist, and pay for honest information while receiving censorship and overt political activism from a media outlet that calls itself public.
A fourth Janez Janša government, if elected, would, if it reduces this over time, represent a return to normality.