By: Dr Metod Berlec
In this issue of Demokracija, investigative journalist Miro Petek writes about Robert Golob, Matjaž Han, and Alenka Bratušek, who, before the last parliamentary elections, used official visits, ministerial events, and the opening of a major state project to promote themselves and their parties.
The Organisation for Security and Co‑operation in Europe (OSCE) listed their cases by name in its report as an illustration of the blurred line between performing state functions and running an election campaign. We had already been strongly warning in our magazine that the previous left‑wing ruling cadre shamelessly abused its position of power for pre‑election promotion. Let us recall how, five days before the elections, a supposedly renovated part of the eighth floor of the main building at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana was ceremonially opened. Prime Minister Robert Golob, Minister of Health Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, and the hospital leadership spoke at the time about an important improvement for patients and the completion of the ward within two weeks, but it later turned out that the premises were still not in use. For purely pre‑election purposes, they had only been temporarily furnished. After the PR event, the borrowed hospital beds were returned to the diagnostic‑therapeutic service, and the televisions were removed from the patient rooms because renovation had to continue.
In other words, they created stage sets for pre‑election needs – beautifying reality in the style of so‑called Potemkin villages. Let us recall: the term originates from the late 18th century, when Russian field marshal Grigory Potemkin allegedly erected façades of beautiful villages during Empress Catherine the Great’s visit to newly conquered areas of present‑day Ukraine and Crimea, to conceal devastation, poverty, and the bleak real situation. It is undoubtedly a synonym for the conduct of Golob’s government, which, with the help of dominant media and PR, painted the state of our country as better than it really was. This certainly applies to public finances. Before the elections, both Golob and then‑Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič spoke extensively about the good or excellent condition of public finances, which is increasingly proving to be a major deception or lie. According to estimates by the new government and the Fiscal Council, the previous Golob government allowed excessive spending and its unsustainable growth, creating a serious budgetary hole and endangering the long‑term sustainability of Slovenia’s public finances. Audits of ministry operations further reveal the financial gap that emerged.
Thus, Minister of Culture Ignacija Fridl Jarc revealed that due to extravagance and mismanagement by former minister Asta Vrečko, the ministry’s budget had a deficit of 8.9 million euros. Minister of Health Tadej Osterc warned that the ministry has a deficit of roughly 200 million euros relative to its assumed obligations and secured funds. The Ministry of Education, Science and Youth, led by Dr Borut Rončević, found that it is short approximately 133 million euros by the end of the year. How things stand in other ministries will be shown by detailed audits of operations, which are still ongoing. Preparing the rebalancing of this year’s budget will therefore be demanding and, for many, a very painful matter.