By: dr. Matevž Tomšič
Even though Prime Minister Robert Golob has a comfortable majority in parliament, unlike any of his predecessors, things started slipping out of his control before he reached the halfway point of his term.
The government is practically bursting at the seams for him. He has already replaced five ministers (as many as Marjan Šarec before he “threw in the towel”). All of them were from his party’s quota. This proves that despite a convincing victory in the elections, it is not a political party in the true sense of the word but rather a coalition gathered from all directions, served by behind-the-scenes directors to the new face of the Slovenian left. The question is how well Golob really knew his parliamentary and later ministerial candidates. If he knew them at all. Most of them were complete unknowns. Even now, it is difficult for political experts to easily name five members of the Gibanje Svoboda party. The same goes for their ministers. For example, who had heard of Irena Šinko or Sanja Ajanović Hovnik before this government took office? Such a group of newcomers is a recipe for disaster.
This is not just about operational incompetence in solving key societal problems (the complications in dealing with the damage from the August floods are just the latest example of this). The approach to tackling issues is completely confused. The government makes a decision overnight, only to revoke it shortly afterward (as happened with the so-called solidarity contribution). Initially, they irrationally increased the number of government departments (we got a record twenty of them), and now the prime minister realises that it is difficult to coordinate such a large government team. Therefore, he advocates a significant reduction in its size. He is solving problems that he himself created.
It seems that the sole purpose of the current ruling coalition was to ensure complete personnel control of its political faction over all areas within its reach. Thus, Golob, after facing serious accusations from former Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar and former police chief Boštjan Lindav, openly stated that he and Bobnar had agreed to “cleanse the police of Janša supporters”. He did something that none of his predecessors or indeed any of the leading players in the Slovenian political scene had done. He proclaimed “urbi et orbi” to the world – that purging political opponents from institutions that should be independent is something normal, even self-evident for him. While others at least concealed their tendency toward political purges, he almost boasts about it. What makes it even more perverse is that he is a person who declared the depoliticisation of almost all public institutions. The practical implications of this are clearly seen at the Slovenian National Television (RTV Slovenia), where they ruthlessly remove anyone hired by the previous leadership, disregarding professional standards. This reflects a typical Bolshevik understanding of governance, assuming that the normal state of affairs is one where everything is controlled by “ours”: those who meet the criteria of “moral-political suitability” (similar to the previous regime).
In this context, the label “Janša supporter” is used entirely arbitrarily. A significant part of the left, including Golob, uses it as an insult to stigmatise all those who oppose left-wing politics and reject leftist ideas. Those labelled as such are automatically assumed to be associated with Janez Janša.
If Golob’s proclamation, demanding the removal of political opponents from the police regardless of their competence, does not have political consequences, it will set a dangerous precedent. In that case, a future right-wing government could systematically remove left-wing personnel from all segments of public administration. Many on the left are convinced that the right will not (never again?) come to power. However, similar sentiments were held by all those who considered themselves irreplaceable, yet they still experienced their political downfall.