By: Vida Kocjan
Lies, manipulations, inactivity, and an alarming state of affairs – raising questions among experts about the competence of Slovenia’s prime minister – are leading the country toward economic and overall decline.
If Slovenia was still a beacon of Europe and other developed countries in 2021, under Golob’s government, we are heading toward the bottom. In 2021, following the health crisis, Slovenia achieved an 8.1% economic growth rate and was recognised as a country that had successfully managed economic recovery, ranking among the best based on GDP growth. The government at the time was led by Janez Janša.
Just a year later, Slovenian voters entrusted the leadership of the government to a man from the transitional left – or rather, a face of the deep state. However, this was not a new face, as Robert Golob had been actively involved in politics for years – from LDS to Positive Slovenia and then the Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB). Most people seem to have forgotten this – human memory is indeed short.
Although Golob was presented as a “top manager,” he failed spectacularly – across the board. This is clearly reflected in Slovenia’s GDP trends in recent years. After the remarkable (Janša-led) year of 2021 with 8.1% growth, by 2024, we have fallen to 1.6%. The government’s Office for Macroeconomic Analysis and Development recently lowered its forecast for 2025 economic growth from 2.4% to 2.1%. This is on par with 2023 growth.
Things are therefore moving downward, and the reasons for this undeniably lie with the government. The main obstacles to our development are high public spending and rising public debt, an unpredictable tax and regulatory environment, and the slow implementation of structural reforms.
In other words, reforms must be accelerated, and the competitiveness of the business environment must improve. Has anyone ever heard Golob or his ministers seriously discuss this?