By: Vida Kocjan
For several months, the economy has been warning the government about worsening economic conditions. International institutions are also pointing to serious circumstances in Slovenia.
Yet the ruling coalition (Freedom, SD, and Levica), led by Prime Minister Robert Golob, is closing its eyes. They “do not see” the serious state of a key part of the economy, insisting that supposedly the whole world still envies us.
Meanwhile, Slovenia is sliding into a deepening economic crisis, with growth around one percent, a weak industrial sector, and declining overall performance. Slovenian industry is sinking, the situation is extremely unpredictable. The automotive, metal, and furniture industries are on the brink, along with all those connected to them.
That is why the government’s silence is so painful. The Ministry of Labour and the entire executive branch have for months avoided giving clear answers about measures, prioritising (leftist) ideology and “saving the world,” even though it is obvious that conditions in Slovenian industry are deteriorating.
They are trapped in their favourite position: waiting. Waiting for data, waiting for assessments, waiting for “appropriate circumstances.” They live in bubbles filled only with self‑praise and mutual back‑patting. They remain silent, balancing between different lobbies.
But the reality of the economy and workers does not wait. Companies and employees bear the main burden of uncertainty. without clear rules, without safeguards, without information.
A major mistake of the government is that it has no strategy for the future. At every economic difficulty, it behaves as if it has unlimited time, while companies and workers do not have that luxury.
A government afraid of decisions is not a stabiliser of conditions, but their disruptor. In truth, it does not even know what it wants to achieve.
The real question today is therefore not whether it is high time to act. The real question is whether the government is even capable of acting at all.