By: Dr Vinko Gorenak
Dear readers of Demokracija. You are holding the 76th and final instalment of the column The Achievements of Golob’s Coalition.
Through Demokracija, we met in this way every fourteen days. There were also many personal encounters, when you approached me here and there and praised my contributions. I wrote them with pleasure, and your encouraging words, sent by email or spoken during brief encounters, meant even more to me. I am ending the contributions under the title “The Achievements of Golob’s Coalition” because the Golob’s coalition itself is departing. The coming period also suggests that I will stop writing for Demokracija. This is due to a personal circumstance that requires me to stop writing.
The common thread of all my contributions was the ruling coalition, or rather the coalition majority in the National Assembly, which I collectively referred to as “Golob’s coalition.” In my columns I was critical, exposing irregularities, abuses, lies, and other things that were happening within the coalition. Let me summarise only some of the themes I wrote about repeatedly, because the actions of the coalition had a greater public impact.
The first theme I often wrote about were the so‑called unexplained actions of Golob. I wrote about his secret bank account in Romania, which he claimed was not his and that his identity had been stolen, something the bank denied. I wrote about the €100,000 that the company Gen‑I, which Golob headed at the time, transferred to journalist Vesna Vuković for unexplained reasons. I wrote about the millions of euros that Gen‑I, during Golob’s leadership, transferred to various accounts in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, something confirmed by the former Kosovar ambassador to Croatia, Berishaj. In all these cases, there are well‑founded suspicions of criminal acts, yet nothing happened in Slovenia. This is because in 2022 Golob explicitly demanded that the position of director of the National Bureau of Investigation be given to his friend Darko Muženič. He still holds this position today, apparently to protect Golob’s image and actions. I hope this will change with the new government.
The second theme I wrote about repeatedly concerned Tatjana Bobnar, the Minister of the Interior, and the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK). Bobnar became Minister of the Interior in Golob’s government in 2022, but after a year she broke with Golob and resigned. The reason for her resignation were Golob’s staffing demands, specifically, the cleansing of “Janša supporters” within the police. Bobnar actively participated in this until those more sympathetic to her came under scrutiny. It is clear that Golob exceeded his legal powers, the police filed a criminal complaint against him, and the court initiated a judicial investigation. A separate story is Golob’s attitude toward the KPK. Before the elections he said that if the KPK found a breach of integrity on his part, he would immediately resign. But when this actually happened, due to his unpaid holiday with Tomaž Subotič, he did not resign; instead, he attacked the KPK.
The third theme I often wrote about were Golob’s so‑called associates, whom he “threw over his shoulder,” as he put it. After Bobnar, he removed Urška Klakočar Zupančič from the party’s vice‑presidency and expelled MP Mojca Šetinc Pašek from the parliamentary group. This was followed by the departures of ministers Danijel Bešič Loredan, Uroš Brežan, Irena Šinko, Sanja Ajanović Hovnik, and Emilija Stojmenova Duh. He also dismissed the candidate for MEP Aleksander Merlo and the candidate for commissioner Klemen Grošelj, to mention only the most prominent cases.
Of course, in 76 instalments I wrote about many other things as well, but the limited space here does not allow me to remind you of all of them once more. I send you my warm regards.