By: Peter Jančič (Spletni časopis)
The ruling party plans to dramatically increase salaries for Prime Minister Robert Golob, President of the State Nataša Pirc Musar, and the Speaker of the National Assembly Urška Klakočar Zupančič by almost half, with the basic salary for presidents jumping to 8,821 euros.
This was the news of the week reported by the newspaper Večer, owned by the pro-government tycoon Martin Odlazek. Most media outlets summarised it. Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič, who must find the money for these governance perks, later denied that this salary increase for officials would happen during this term. However, he did not deny plans for a significant salary increase. And these plans are not new. Former Minister for Public Administration Sanja Ajanović Hovnik, who was dismissed due to payments to private individuals, had already announced it. As a reward, she received a better-paid job at the state railways, with a salary level that is only planned for presidents of all branches of government. Part of the story about raising salaries for officials also included promises from Prime Minister Golob and Justice Minister Dominika Švarc Pipan about immediately temporarily increasing salaries for judges and prosecutors until they are significantly increased for all. Švarc Pipan has also resigned due to unusual payments. For real estate.
The plans of the ruling party, which have already doubled budgetary allocations to their parties with the new year, shed new light on the government’s decision not to adhere to signed agreements with doctors, triggering a prolonged strike. Are they not giving to doctors because then there would not be enough left for parties and politics?
Even more than the ambitions of the ruling party to increase funding for their parties and salaries, what surprised me this week was when the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, after stating that she expected the immediate resignation of Constitutional Court Justice Klemen Jaklič because he was doing additional work in addition to his function, which the Constitutional Court Act allows, publicly criticised the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) because they gave her a failing grade in the “witch hunt” process against Jaklič.
The CPC has publicly stated all along that they are not competent to assess the compatibility of the work of constitutional judges according to the Constitutional Court Act. CPC President Robert Šumi even reminded Klakočar Zupančič that courage is not the problem, legality is.
All of this was surprising because it showed us that new faces learn nothing from past embarrassments. Klakočar Zupančič is following the example of Justice Minister Goran Klemenčič, who publicly threatened that heads would roll if the judiciary did not convict Igor Bavčar. This sparked ecstatic enthusiasm in the media. Finally, a resolute politician going after criminals if they are no longer in his party. However, the smarter judges were less enthusiastic. The smartest among them simply crossed themselves, realising what fools there were in the government. It ended with the European Court ruling that Bavčar’s trial was unfair because the Justice Minister publicly threatened judges that heads would roll if they did not do what was demanded.
Now the head of the ruling Svoboda Party demands the resignation of a Constitutional Court judge because he criticises political purges in the media and elsewhere. Urška Klakočar is orchestrating a witch hunt. For now, unsuccessfully.
In fact, Klakočar Zupančič is behaving worse than Klemenčič. Even the Constitutional Court has already informed her through a media statement that the additional work performed by Judge Jaklič is allowed by the Constitutional Court Act and nowhere does this law specify that he cannot perform this work as a sole proprietor. It is clear, therefore, that these are merely political accusations that he paid slightly less taxes than he would have if paid in other ways. But to be fair, this is not Jaklič’s problem. It is Klakočar Zupančič’s problem. We have such a legal arrangement. It was legislated by the MPs. She is the first among them. In the past, journalists from the Necenzurirano portal, including the former general secretary of the Svoboda Party, Vesna Vuković, also used these benefits. And this was during the time when they were doing business with Siol.net of the state-owned Telekom and pulling money through SEE M. & C from GEN-I of Robert Golob, the Brio centre of Klemen Boštjančič, Gorenje…
Jaklič’s sole proprietorship, which he had already closed before the scandal, was a more transparent way of doing business than others used by officials for additional work, as payments from state institutions to sole proprietorships can be verified in the Erar system. This is not possible with payments to others. They do indeed work under the table. The latest case where this was revealed was that of Minister of Culture Asta Vrečko, who received payments from the Faculty of Arts in the last six months. The amounts were disclosed to me from there after a few weeks. There is no trace of these payments in Erar, of course.
After further investigations and the publication of the story that she had two frozen positions at the Faculty of Arts and that she was paid for additional work, Minister Vrečko accused me of publishing Jože Dežman’s text, which, according to publicly available records in April, warned that he was working for the Faculty of Arts part-time. This was somewhat illogical because the law allows ministers and MPs to work an additional day a week. The minister responded to Dežman’s writing by saying that it was a complete factory of lies. But it was not a complete lie. She had to admit this later when I pointed out a two-year-old government document asking for and granting her additional work at the faculty. Now we have learned more details.
The real problem remains that the state does not collect information on where all officials work additionally, who pays them, and how much, and there is no oversight whatsoever. The demands of the media and ruling politicians for Constitutional Judge Jaklič to present them with data, simply because they dislike him, speak volumes about the state of affairs. Such political vendettas against a Constitutional Judge are disgusting. The worst face of our country.
The loopholes in legislation were further exposed when some Constitutional Judges disclosed their additional income to the media, which also included payments from institutions for which they did not have permits for additional work. At least, they did not inform me about these permits when they informed me about it.
Klakočar Zupančič upgraded Klemenčič’s achievement this week by threatening judges that heads would roll. Because Parliament cannot investigate Jaklič due to the principles of the division of powers, and the CPC also denied her request, she accused the CPC of lacking courage. Courage to violate the principles of the division of powers, which apply to both the Parliament and the CPC. Klakočar Zupančič does all this because most of the media dare not warn her that she is disgracing the country. Just like they did not with Klemenčič. They are afraid. Because it is known that the ruling powers are vindictive and crush critics. They throw them out of jobs. Onto the streets. They did this with leaders in the economy, healthcare, editors, and journalists in the media, even in agriculture with the change in the law on the Chamber of Agriculture, which the Constitutional Court has already annulled. They want to do the same in the judiciary.
This turns the country and its discussions into a stagnant cesspool of conformists and nodders. Fortunately, they do not entirely succeed. People do not like uniformity. This is probably also the reason for the support for the Online Newspaper, for which I am grateful.
We are witnessing similar extremes in foreign policy. Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, who was ousted as the leader of the Social Democrats due to her involvement in strange payments from private individuals for real estate, declared during her visit to the Middle East that the country had already decided to recognise Palestine. Even though parliament has not decided anything yet. Neither has the government. Prime Minister Robert Golob subsequently initiated the process of deciding on the recognition of Palestine this week, which, as he announced, will take place after the European elections.
The big media outlets are trying to improve their image with striking headlines about how our country is now saving the rest of the world. Tanja Fajon and Robert Golob allegedly are saving Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom, the United States, and similar countries, which are not willing to recognise Palestine until they renounce Nazi ideas that call for the elimination of the state of Israel and all Jews there.
Part of this is the war that the Palestinians from Gaza started last year with wanton slaughter of Israelis across the border, including children, rape of girls, hostage taking and rocket fire. With the idea that Golob and Fajon are helping the largest Western countries, which apparently do not understand what is happening, the opposite interpretation is also possible, that they are trying to help someone else so that the conflict in the Middle East does not end, which is in the interest of many dictatorships around there.
It is not difficult to guess who the most.
The war launched by Hamas, which Iran is usually behind, was also in Russia’s interest. Let’s remember how Tanja Fajon got angry when Janez Janša, still as the head of the government, visited Kyiv immediately after the Russian attack, saying that this was not coordinated in the EU. Although it was a great move and Janša travelled with the heads of government of the Czech Republic and Poland.
The war started by the Palestinians shifted the attention of the West, and especially the military logistics of the United States, to the Middle East. Putin launched an offensive almost simultaneously with the Palestinian attack from Gaza and within a few months, when the Ukrainians ran out of ammunition, captured Avdiivka. However, he has not yet succeeded in occupying additional areas in the east of Ukraine, which is rich in minerals and industrial potential and has therefore long been a target for Russian occupation.
Once, our government, with the help of the state-owned NLB (Nova Ljubljanska Banka), aided Iran in circumventing Western sanctions for financing intelligence operations in the West. When the authorities, during the time of Borut Pahor’s government, after about a year when the events could no longer be hidden, decided to stop this, the Iranian “entrepreneur”, who had previously channelled a billion through NLB to Iranian “Mickey Mouses” in the West, moved to Russia.
While our recognition of Palestine, if it happens, is unlikely to have a significant impact on the events in the Middle East, it will certainly further weaken the West, of which we are a part.
However, beyond this, the ruling elites simply cannot manage more than granting themselves higher privileges and persecuting witches.
