By: Peter Jančič (Spletni časopis)
After a long battle by Robert Golob, aided by the most aggressive lawyer in the country, Stojan Zdolšek, to prevent the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (CPC) from concluding that he had acted improperly (violated integrity) through repeated purges in the police, the Commission reached that conclusion just before the New Year and the elections.
The prime minister had long ago said that it was self‑evident he would resign in such a case. Of course, he did not resign. We all knew he would not. Golob’s words are not worth a plugged nickel. Not even when he says “full stop.” And “final full stop.” And all this is happening at a time when every institution is lowering its forecast of the country’s economic growth toward zero, while the budget deficit, due to reckless spending, has exploded toward two billion.
“Morning. I must admit I am becoming seriously concerned about the staffing situation in the police. I do not like any of it. Because none of the agreement has been carried out. Full stop. Final full stop.”
Full stop. Final full stop.
Had Golob resigned, President Nataša Pirc Musar would have had to call early elections rather than regular ones. She announced regular elections on January 6 this year, after the CPC decision. It cannot be ruled out that she knew more than the rest of us. The public learned of the CPC’s decision this week from Prime Minister Golob himself. The CPC has still not published it. Their caution is understandable. From the past we know of a case of blatant political abuse of the CPC, when Goran Klemenčič published findings about Janez Janša, among them insinuations about Trenta, without giving him the legally required opportunity to respond. The courts later confirmed this violation. The consequence of that abuse was the fall of the government during a severe economic crisis. Since Klemenčič had been appointed to the top of the CPC as a former political functionary (deputy to Minister Katarina Kresal), and had even helped draft amendments to the CPC law that he later violated, it was clear that this was a straightforward abuse of office for party interests, something that harmed the country in the long run. And the CPC as well. Who will trust such people again?
This time, even after completing all procedures, the CPC has not published its decision. Golob announced he would initiate legal proceedings against the content that remains hidden from the public. And now they are waiting for the outcome. We are on the eve of elections; the delay has backfired on Golob, and he is now reframing the issue by casting himself as a victim of political abuse by the commission, just as Janša once was. He is not convincing, because the entire CPC senate was appointed by his own side. He also has a problem with the substance. When it comes to the CPC, we must examine the arguments and verify everything. They have squandered public trust. In the past they have repeatedly shown themselves to be a commission for political score‑settling with the right and for shielding misconduct on the left. That the ruler violated integrity by repeatedly and hastily replacing various police chiefs, as the CPC has now confirmed, is not surprising; it is simply true. We all know that Golob brutally abused power for his own benefit, for the benefit of his party and coalition, to secure a second term. I myself pointed this out when I was still editor of Siol.net, in a column later censored by the editor installed by Golob after purging the leadership of Telekom and Siol.net. That episode too revealed a complete lack of integrity. A display of authoritarian misery. In the column that “disappeared,” I wrote:
“Only an independent judge can determine the guilt of Dušan Josip Smodej after the publication of testimonies alleging that he sexually abused drugged minors, fantasised about tying young women to a radiator in a basement, and committed financial fraud. A judge cannot be replaced by social‑media posts, village gossips, or uncensored journalists hired by politicians to smear opponents, or even sharing their beds. The problem with the Smodej case is that we know a judge’s ruling will likely never come. Not only because the consequences of reporting sexual abuse, if the victims even dare to report it, usually fall hardest on the victims themselves. We also have a police leadership that resembles uncensored journalists in the service of politicians. The new government has already installed its own. It replaced the top of the police faster and more extensively than the previous one. They installed their people, creating the impression, through a political purge, that the goal was to persecute and discredit opposition politicians and protect those in power if they found themselves in trouble, as in the case of Dušan Josip Smodej.”
But it did not stop there, nor with the special security unit Golob created just for himself because he was dissatisfied with the standard protection provided to officeholders under his authority. Golob is ambitious. He replaced the top of the police again. And the leadership of Siol.net for a second time as well. After the first purge, they still were not obedient and submissive enough. There are no limits for this ruler. Except that the second time, the interior minister Tatjana Bobnar and the acting police commissioner Boštjan Lindav resisted him, Lindav was only acting commissioner because Golob refused to confirm his full mandate, making it easier to influence the head of the police. Politicians have often kept editors‑in‑chief of state media in similar check. Including Siol.net. The police chief was appointed only for a short period, without full authority. Weak. Uncertain.
The consequences of these purges were harmful to the state and its people. Because of Bobnar’s resistance, and because it became public that Golob and his partner Tina Gaber were staying for free in the Istrian villa of businessman Tomaž Subotič, who was simultaneously receiving important posts in state hospitals, while the government also supported his business ambitions, for example in Unior, Golob found himself under investigation by the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. He is also being investigated by the police, known for its inability to find anything. But an even more serious consequence was that the country ended up with a general director of police appointed according to the principle that literacy does not matter, what matters is that he is “ours.” If he is illiterate, even better, even more “ours.” The general director became Senad Jušić. Jušić, although he did not meet the conditions for the position, served as general director of police until a year ago, until the court confirmed what everyone already knew. Can you imagine the embarrassment? And the damage this causes to the state and the police? If you drive a car without a license, you get punished. But you can drive the entire Golob‑era police force without one. In the censored column I wrote at the beginning of this government’s term, I predicted exactly what the achievements of Golob’s police would be and what the personnel changes were really about. There is still no trial for Dušan Josip Smodej after three years. It would be awkward for the current government. For example for Luka Mesec, who unnecessarily denied Bojan Požar’s reporting by claiming he had never had anything to do with Smodej, had never been at his parties, and had nothing to do with drug‑assisted rapes of underage girls. But after that denial, videos surfaced of Mesec at Fotopub, run by Smodej, attending an exhibition of painter Roman Uranjek. And another video of Mesec with a glass in hand at a party there. The usual kind at a cultural event, not involving drug‑assisted rape. According to media sympathetic to the government, some of the girls allegedly consumed the so‑called “rape drugs” voluntarily and with full awareness of the consequences. The political activist Nika Kovač, awarded by the newspaper Delo, helpfully relativised the situation at the time as “legitimate, though not entirely legal.”
The abuse of power for repeated political purges in the media, the police, and state‑owned companies was not without purpose. There was only one: to secure another term at the top of the government.
And the finale of this battle, and the decision on whether they will succeed, is now before all of us.
