By: Dr Metod Berlec
Prime Minister Robert Golob was caught lying again last week – not just once, but multiple times. Journalist Vida Kocjan provides a detailed report on this in the latest issue of the magazine.
It has now become clear that Golob’s family had at least two bank accounts abroad, despite his initial claims that they had none. Additionally, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) has revealed new findings in its online Erar database, which place significant pressure on the state-owned company Gen-I and Robert Golob himself. “The updated Erar database revealed that the state-owned company Gen-I, which trades and sells electricity, transferred a staggering €20 million to a private individual on March 28th, 2022. The recipient was not disclosed, but the transaction took place just before the parliamentary elections on April 24th, 2022. This has raised serious concerns about whether the money was used to finance Robert Golob’s election campaign and his Gibanje Svoboda party.” Gen-I responded by claiming that the irregularity was due to a systemic error in the newly updated Erar application. The CPC denied this, but the Public Payments Administration (UJP), a body under the Ministry of Finance led by Klemen Boštjančič (GS), who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, later “admitted” to the mistake. The UJP has been headed by Urška Kos since August last year.
Significantly, before this revelation, Gen-I, with support from the Gibanje Svoboda, attempted to prevent the publication of payment data, even seeking intervention from the Constitutional Court. However, their efforts were unsuccessful. Although the transaction has now been exposed, it remains unclear who exactly received the €20 million from Gen-I just before the elections, as the bank account details are not publicly accessible. The official claim is that the payment was for bond settlements, but the recipient and the exact amounts remain undisclosed. This raises strong suspicions that the transaction was part of a financial manoeuvre to secretly fund Golob’s Gibanje Svoboda campaign through intermediaries. According to analysts, a sum as large as €20 million could, under Slovenian conditions, potentially buy an election victory.
In this issue of the magazine, we also focus on international relations, the war in Ukraine, and the European Union’s need to ensure its own security. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently presented the “ReArm Europe” plan, which was endorsed by the European Council. However, as international relations expert Dr Igor Kovač explains in an interview, any serious reform in the EU takes about ten years to be fully implemented. Meanwhile, Janez Stušek, Chairman of the Defence Committee at the SDS Expert Council, stresses the need for a “long-term strategic direction that ensures national security, strong defence capabilities, and reliable allies”. However, under Golob’s government, such an approach seems completely out of reach…
