By: Dr. Vinko Gorenak
Dear viewers of Nova24TV. A month has passed, and we see each other again. There was quite a lot going on during that time, which you were able to follow, but let me add my point of view. Do you know how many persons in Europe held the most important positions in their country and also in Europe? Of course, I am referring to people who performed the duties of a member of the national parliament, a member of the European Parliament, people who led political parties and won elections, were the president of the national parliament and the prime minister, and on top of that they were also the president of the country?
Speak of the devil. How true is that old folk saying that no good deed goes unpunished. Years ago, Borut Pahor invited an insignificant journalist, who reported from Brussels for the needs of Slovenian national television, that she was running for a member of the European Parliament on the list of the Social Democrats. And it happened. An insignificant journalist became a member of the European Parliament. She later held the position of president of the Social Democrats, led the party to the National Assembly elections in 2022, and the party won only 7 MPs. Borut Pahor, the one who invited her into politics, won as many as 29 MPs in 2011. You guessed it, I am talking about Tanja Fajon.
It is not entirely clear to me why Borut Pahor expressed his willingness to reactivate in Tanja Fajon’s Social Democrats after the end of his presidential term. I hope that he is aware of his political weight, both at home and in Europe and the world, and that this move of his was simply a deliberate provocation, which Tanja Fajon’s Social Democrats fell for.
It is quite incredible that they do not want Pahor’s return. There is something seriously wrong with a political party that rejects the kind of political capital that Borut Pahor has and is on the way to collapse. Of course, we can only wish for Borut Pahor to stay in Slovenia, to found a new centrist political party together with like-minded people, which will be able to connect to both the left and the right and will not exclude anyone.
The government of Robert Golob is bringing us closer to the times of hard socialism with all the consequences. Let me list some reasons for such a claim. Do you remember the time of the death of Jože Pučnik, the father of Slovenian independence and an independent state?
Just a few days ago it was 20 years since his untimely death. He was not given a funeral with state honours, they even opposed the mourning session of the National Assembly. But that is why they buried Janez Zemljarič with military honours a few days ago, who would have had to go to court anyway for the crimes he committed as head of the UDBA. A few days ago, the Museum of Slovenian Independence, i.e., the museum that was supposed to testify to posterity about the creation of the independent state of Slovenia, was also closed. Something like this has never happened anywhere in Europe.
I was in Budapest, Hungary for the first time in 1994. Around their parliament there were monuments to socialist and communist leaders from Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin to their home communist leaders. I visited Budapest again in 2011. There was no trace of the mentioned statues. However, some statues dedicated to the revolutionaries of 1956, who otherwise unsuccessfully led the resistance against the Soviet Union at the time, and several statues dedicated to their poets, writers, cultural figures, and others were newly erected.
Everything is different in Slovenia
In Slovenia, however, there is nothing like it is in Hungary. We still have statues dedicated to individuals such as Tito, Kardelj, Kidrič and others who led criminal organisations, which was also found by the court.
We even have a supposedly 19-ton monument to the revolution in front of the National Assembly in Ljubljana. The monument to the revolution is, of course, a monument to the transition to a one-party system after the Second World War and everything that happened then, so it is also a monument to all those who killed tens of thousands of innocent people after the Second World War. Understand who can. Of course, most foreigners do not understand this.
Street protests are also somewhat unusual in Slovenia. Individual left-wing political activists protested even before Janša’s third government was formed in 2020. They even called for the murder of Janez Janša. During the third Janša’s government, we witnessed protests of one kind or another in Ljubljana and elsewhere. More or less, all the organisers of the aforementioned protests were personally received by the new Prime Minister, Robert Golob. Of course, he also richly rewarded them through the financing of non-governmental organisations. I should especially mention the protest in Trbovlje in 2021, when Janša’s government was visiting there. Each visit of the government to a particular region naturally means that the government brings a huge amount of money to the region, not literally, of course, but through the planned investments of the state in the region. It was like that then too. But the locals did not welcome the government with applause, but instead protested against the government. Yes, it is true, they were protesting against the government that brought money to the region. When, in the first months of 2022, we paid for electricity at about half the price it was before, no one in Trbovlje applauded. A few days ago, however, individuals gathered at the protest who have sums of several hundred euros on their fuel bills, which did not exist during Janša’s government. And in Trbovlje today, they are apparently only dissatisfied, and there will probably be no more protests.
In 30 days to a specialist
Before the elections, the Social Democrats promised everything and more, because you remember those red posters with the inscriptions “30 days to a specialist” and “we will provide everyone with a personal doctor” and the like. Well, it has been more than half a year since the elections, after which they formed the coalition, and there is no sign of these promises. Moreover, as many as 120,000 people do not have a personal doctor, and the queues for specialist examinations are growing enormously. Tanja Fajon, Matjaž Nemec and others forgot their promises. Let me just remind you of the hundreds and thousands of people who, a few days ago, stood in line all night in front of medical centres in Ljubljana in order to secure a personal doctor.
But the bills are coming slowly, also because of the stupid things done by Prime Minister Robert Golob. Judges are officials and, in addition to MPs, state secretaries, ministers, the president of the country, the government and the national assembly, they have the highest salaries in the country. Unsuspectedly, without the knowledge of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Public Administration, let alone the Minister of Finance, Robert Golob solemnly promised at a meeting of all judges that from the beginning of this year they will receive a 600-euro bonus to their salary. Of course, he “snapped” something reckless, because there is no legal basis for such a thing at all, but it is true that the members of the coalition can and will do it. Is this behaviour some kind of bribe to the judges, who knows, but it is true that Golob is reportedly in pre-trial proceedings for known Balkan crimes, which is widely reported in other countries of the former Yugoslavia, but not in our country.
There is only one sadness with the judges in our country, almost 20 years ago they awarded themselves a salary increase, which was simply denied to other employees in the public sector. When the third Janša’s government reduced the salaries of all officials in 2020, the judges did not allow it, even though they are also officials. But it is the judges who, from 2008 until a few years ago, tortured Janez Janša because of the Patria case. He was also sent to prison just before the 2014 elections, but in the end the Constitutional Court decided that he was tried for an act that was not a crime. And today they say that taxpayers should pay the compensation for Janez Janša, but we will not.
The name of the successor is not really important
However, it seems that Golob did not count on the reaction of other social groups, judicial workers, police officers, policemen, firefighters, teachers, soldiers, social workers, and others who are demanding correspondingly higher salaries today. How Golob will solve the problem he caused himself is not clear for now. It is quite possible that the political behind the scenes, which put him in this position with the help of the media, will also fire him. If you are wondering who could succeed him, your question is quite irrelevant, in this case he will be succeeded by the one who will be determined by the political underground, and the media will of course portray him as the saviour of Slovenia. This could also be Jaka or Genovef from middle or lower Kašlje, just so it will not be Janša.
You may be surprised at this statement of mine. Let me therefore remind you of the words of the Minister of Health, Bešič Loredan, who first pointed the finger at the culprit for the state of health in Ljubljana, that is, at Zoran Janković. But this determination of the health minister was short-lived. Of course, the political underground reacted clearly, loudly, and harshly. Janković is untouchable.
And a meeting took place at Robert Golob’s, where Janković and Minister Bešič Loredan also came. Two apologies from Bešič Loredan and two deep tributes to Janković from Bešič Loredan, along with a bowed head and a look at the ground, made there by extra Robert Golob, said it all. According to the will of the political underworld, the boss is Janković and by no means Bešič Loredan or Robert Golob.
Dear viewers,
That is how it is in Slovenia. But it does not have to last forever. Only the voters can change things and not fall for the so-called new faces again and again.
Best regards.