By: Dr Metod Berlec
In this issue of the Demokracija magazine, we write about the consequences of the harmful actions of Golob’s neo-socialist government, which, as our journalist Vida Kocjan emphasises, primarily manifest in the fact that the government spent 2.4 billion euros more in 2023 than the amount collected in the state budget despite all the high taxes. At the same time, our country, under the current ruling coalition, faced high inflation and increased indebtedness last year. Consequently, the country’s debt is rapidly growing. Despite this, Slovenia narrowly avoided a recession for now.
The ruling coalition (Gibanje Svoboda, SD, and Levica) continues with its incompetent governance, as evidenced by Golob’s nomination for the position of Minister of Agriculture, proposing an individual who falsely claimed to have a university education in the last parliamentary elections. To make matters worse, the news that Minister and Vice Prime Minister Luka Mesec (from Levica party) will be responsible for preparing the list of government priorities for this year surprised us as we entered 2024. Prime Minister Robert Golob is once again promising reforms. According to him, the starting points for the tax reform should be prepared by the end of the first quarter of this year, which, given his inflated promises so far, is highly unlikely.
In this regard, Golob welcomed the New Year 2024 in the Slovenian capital in the company of the notorious Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković. The day after, he socialised with him over lunch at one of the Ljubljana restaurants with Balkan cuisine. The entire situation appeared politically quite unhygienic, almost mafia-like, as Golob, similar to Janković, faces numerous allegations of corruption and clientelism. Many instances of questionable business dealings and conduct indeed. The latest such case is the news that he has officially become the sole owner of the company Star Solar, a company for the production of electric energy that sells electricity through the state-owned company Borzen, which is also the largest payer to Golob’s Star Solar. The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption is supposed to prioritise investigating this matter. It would be necessary to thoroughly examine all of Golob’s Balkan dealings during his time leading GEN-I. We have already extensively covered this topic in our magazine. We also released a special issue of Demokracija Magazine on this subject. Allegedly questionable dealings should also be investigated by a special parliamentary inquiry commission, proposed by SDS for a year and a half, but unfortunately, it has not been established to this day, as officially, opposition NSi party shamefully refuses to contribute votes for it. It should be noted that the National Assembly orders a parliamentary inquiry if demanded by one-third of all MPs. SDS lacks three MPs. It would also be necessary to investigate how Golob, through his personnel connections, abuses GEN-I for his political needs. This state-owned company extensively sponsors, finances individuals, companies, and media actively supporting the Gibanje Svoboda party or working in its interest. When SDS MP Žan Mahnič pointed this out on the X network, SDS leader Janez Janša bluntly stated, “Corruption and clientelism that surpass even the pattern of Gregor Golobič and the late LDS in 2002.”
The recent events at RTV Slovenija surpass even the negative aspects of the LDS party rule, as the central national media house has leadership that does not respect labour laws or media pluralism. The leadership thinks and acts in a totalitarian, Bolshevik manner. The fact that they blocked access to the building for the responsible editor of the second programme of TV Slovenia, Rajko Gerič, and 14 other employees by blocking their ID cards is an unprecedented scandal. Earlier, they (most likely) illegally sent them “on standby to work from home”, simply because they were employed under the previous management. This is despicable behaviour by the CEO of RTVS, Zvezdan Martič, board member Andrej Trček, TV Slovenia director Ksenija Horvat, and the RTV council under the leadership of Goran Forbici. Of course, they are carrying out the purge at RTVS at the behest of the ruling left coalition led by Robert Golob. The situation is additionally problematic because all Slovenian taxpayers pay a mandatory contribution to RTVS each month. Therefore, the RTVS management should support opinion pluralism, worldviews diversity, journalistic, and editorial professionalism, instead of restricting it, acting servile to those in power, and supporting ideological uniformity. Certainly, the actions of the RTVS leadership harm the institution they lead, as it will eventually lose many viewers and listeners and squander the little reputation this institution has. This is a path in the wrong direction, as evidenced by the chaos we are witnessing these days with the judiciary and medical strikes…