By: Dr Metod Berlec
In the latest issue of Demokracija, we examined in detail the decision of the Anti‑Corruption Commission (CPC), which further exposed the scandalous background of Prime Minister Robert Golob’s conduct and that of the Freedom Movement. The finding that the prime minister unlawfully influenced staffing decisions within the Slovenian police represents a direct violation of integrity and of the law intended to safeguard the independence of the so‑called repressive state bodies.
As SDS president Janez Janša points out, the essence is often overlooked: by instructing the minister of the interior to remove from state structures (in this case, the police) those who are politically differently aligned (specifically “Janša supporters”), Golob directly violated Article 14 of the Constitution, which states that all citizens in the Republic of Slovenia are equal before the law. And with his public statement that he had instructed the minister that “she has only one task, and that is to cleanse the police of Janša supporters,” he also violated Article 131 of the Criminal Code (KZ‑1), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of political belief. At the same time, he is burdened by the Karigador affair, in which the CPC already in its draft findings established a conflict of interest due to his free holidaying with a businessman who was later appointed to supervisory bodies of public healthcare institutions. All this concerns the head of the executive branch who, in 2022, confidently claimed he would “definitely resign” if the CPC found a breach of integrity on his part. Today, he downplays the decision and presents it selectively, further eroding his credibility in the eyes of the public.
With elections approaching, public attention is once again turning to opinion polls, which proved completely unreliable before the last referendum. According to Ninamedija and Parsifal, SDS together with the Democrats and NSi would convincingly take power – with 44.2 or 46.4 percent of the vote. According to Mediana, Golob would retain power, even though the governing parties would lose their majority. In this scenario, a single actor is said to be decisive: Zoran Stevanović’s party Resni.ca. Mediana predicts it would enter parliament with 5.9 percent and become the kingmaker enabling Golob to continue governing, while Parsifal predicts it would not enter parliament at all. As Peter Jančič notes, Stevanović’s political profile suggests he is a reserve wheel of the left bloc, not only because he signed a statement that he would never cooperate with SDS, but also because of his sudden appointment as head of the water polo federation in Kranj, a city controlled by the SD party, in a sport overseen by Minister Han’s department. A former police officer with no connection to water polo thus overnight became part of a network that appears to be working to preserve left‑wing power. All three polls suffer from the same methodological flaw, artificially lowering NSi’s result and slightly inflating Levica’s. Yet the overall picture is clear: SDS is in the lead, the Freedom Movement is trailing, and every vote will matter. The 2026 election will be a test of whether Slovenia chooses responsibility or the continuation of Yugoslav‑socialist political experiments that are leading the country toward decline.