By: Dr Metod Berlec
In this issue of Demokracija, we focused on the scandalous actions of the Minister of Culture, Astra Vrečko, who independently authorised the payment of 8,346 euros to the notorious leftist “cultural figure” Svetlana Makarovič, who enjoys special privileges at the Trnovo Senior Centre in Ljubljana and receives an exceptional pension. The amount is said to be a retroactive payment for the Prešeren Award in 2000. At that time, Makarovič vehemently rejected the award in its entirety because she did not want to share the stage with Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, who received the award for his mosaic in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel at the Vatican.
Today, this controversial (and likely illegal) payment can be understood primarily as an ideological reward for her relentless campaign against the previous Janša’s government. A reward for her regular primitive appearances at the Friday political cyclist protests under the Revolution Monument at Republic Square in Ljubljana. It is worth recalling the words of the President of the Management Board of the Prešeren Fund, Dr Jožef Muhovič, which he expressed at the Friday session of the Committee on Public Finance of the National Assembly. According to him, Article 12 of the Prešeren Award Act does indeed state that the funds for awarding prizes and the work of the management board are provided by the Republic of Slovenia, and that the Ministry of Culture is responsible for the expert and administrative work for the management board. However, according to the management board’s opinion, “in no way and under no circumstances does it follow that the Ministry of Culture can provide and pay any monetary prizes to individuals on its own and without authorisation from the current management board, citing Article 12 of the Prešeren Award Act, especially with retroactive effect”. “The management board has never discussed the payment of this type and has never issued administrative orders or instructions to the Ministry for Culture for the execution of the financial transaction in question. The transaction has no connection to the management board,” Muhovič emphasised, adding that they find that the Ministry of Culture “in this case has made an impermissible exceedance of powers or a lack of authorisation”.
Golob’s government has rewarded the infamous poet and son of a Yugoslav officer, Boris A. Novak, for his campaign against the previous Janša’s government. From October 1st this year, he will receive a “retirement pension for special merits in the field of culture”. Similarly, last Thursday, Zvezdan Martič was rewarded for his campaign against the previous Janša’s government by becoming the President of the Management Board of the Radiotelevision Slovenia (RTVS). The “Party” council of RTVS confirmed him almost unanimously, with 16 votes out of 17, in the first round. It is scandalous that the body, appointed on the basis of the controversial amendment to the RTVS Act, is politically as one-sided as the central committee of the Party in the previous regime, even though it is funded by all Slovenian taxpayers. Martič is a long-time journalist and former assistant to the director of TV Slovenia, Natalija Gorščak, in the period 2019-2021. During the so-called journalists’ strike, he became known as an activist journalist who advocated for the political usurpation or “depoliticisation” of the public institution by the ruling Golob coalition as a candidate of radical left-wing journalistic activists. He allegedly promised them a purge and a crackdown on “right-wing journalists”. That this will indeed happen is already indicated by the Monday verbal attack by the RTV council member, Dr Tadej Troha (representative of SAZU), who verbally attacked the responsible editor of the RTV news programme, Jadranka Rebernik, in an elevator. The four-member management board will begin its work once two more members and the workers’ director, who will be elected by the employees of the institution in direct elections, are confirmed. It is already clear that the institution will not function well, as RTVS will be led or self-governed like a socialist collective farm, with no real accountability.
In the shadow of this ideological turmoil, preparations are underway for the privatisation of the energy sector, which we also write about in the magazine. The government coalition (Gibanje Svoboda, SD, and Levica) passed a lobbying law in the National Assembly the day before Golob pushed the now former Minister Danijel Bešič Loredan to submit his resignation. The law actually strengthens Golob’s Gen-I. Talks are underway about a major merger of the trading parts of Holding Slovenske elektrarne (HSE) and Gen-I, resulting in the creation of a new super trader, where the arrogant but incompetent “Sun King”, the current Prime Minister Robert Golob, can return after retiring from politics and after the failure of his political career…