By: Dr Metod Berlec
In this issue of Demokracija, we took a closer look at the actions of Golob’s government, which is steering the Republic of Slovenia in the completely wrong direction. We asked ourselves what the main “achievements” of the ruling coalition are and found that there are none. Quite the opposite.
For example, at the end of last week, the Fiscal Council once again warned about the irrational planning of budget expenditures. “The 2025 budget was drafted based on overly high expenditure estimates for 2024. As a result, the deficit increases this year could be larger than projected when budget documents were adopted. The deficit, excluding emergency measures, is expected to rise by €1.6 billion compared to the latest available 2024 data, while expenditures are set to increase by €2.4 billion. More than half of these additional expenditures will go toward current spending (e.g., salaries and social benefits), which places a long-term burden on public finances. Such an approach to budget planning can lead to irrational spending and threaten the sustainability of state finances.”
Of course, things are also heading in the wrong direction in many other areas. This is becoming increasingly clear to the public, as shown by the February Mediana poll conducted for Delo. Only 17.3% of respondents rated the government’s performance as very positive or positive (down from 17.7% in January), while 53.2% viewed it as negative or very negative (January: 54%). Meanwhile, 26.8% of respondents gave it a neutral rating (January: 25.4%). Among political parties, Janez Janša’s SDS is leading by a wide margin. According to this poll, 23.7% of respondents would vote for SDS (January: 20.4%), 12.7% for Gibanje Svoboda (January: 14.4%), and 6.4% for SD (January: 6%). They are followed by Levica with 4% (January: 5%) and NSi with 3.8% (January: 5.1%). Other non-parliamentary parties follow, while 36% of respondents are undecided or would not vote.
Once again, it is becoming evident that the only true alternative to the ruling coalition is SDS under the leadership of Janez Janša. Together with the SDS Expert Council, Janša is already preparing a detailed programme for individual government departments for the next mandate.
At the same time, an intellectual circle gathered around Katedrala svobode (Editorial Board: Peter Jambrek, Ernest Petrič, Alenka Puhar, Dimitrij Rupel, Ivan Štuhec, Žiga Turk, and Tomaž Zalaznik) is preparing to publish 74 contributions from various authors under the title Consensus for a Historic Moment – New Contributions to the Slovenian Spring Programme. The book will be officially presented on March 20th this year. Additionally, there are discussions about constitutional changes aimed at shedding socialist remnants and moving toward solutions inspired by the so-called writers’ constitution.