By: Dr Metod Berlec
President of the Freedom Movement, Robert Golob, publicly stated in his capacity as Prime Minister that he had agreed with the former Minister of the Interior that “she has only one task, to purge the police of Janša loyalists.”
A similar arrangement was made for RTV Slovenia. Such a statement is not only politically inappropriate but legally questionable – it directly contradicts Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Slovenia, which prohibits discrimination based on political belief. When a prime minister calls for a purge of ideological opponents, it is no longer democratic governance but a slide into authoritarianism – an abuse of official power. This kind of rhetoric is familiar from totalitarian regimes, not from a country that is a member of the EU. It is worth recalling the recent words of SDS president Janez Janša, spoken on Planet TV: “The left-wing political bloc has been in power for 70 of the past 80 years! In the 34 years of independent Slovenia, it has held power for 26. The people appointed during our term represent only a small fraction of the entire administration, yet the current government has decided to purge them. That is a scandal, and those responsible should face criminal charges.”
In just over three years, Golob’s government has demonstrated how dangerous it is when a power-hungry administration controls all three branches of government (legislative, executive, and, to a large extent, judicial). It governs in an authoritarian and arrogant manner, showing no respect for institutions, laws, or citizens. Systematic personnel purges, political pressure on so-called independent bodies such as the Court of Audit, the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, and the National Council, along with abuses of public funds, have become routine under Golob’s leadership. The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption has identified multiple breaches of integrity by Golob, yet instead of resigning – as he promised before the elections – he clings to power like a tick, attacking through his arrogant lawyer and compliant media. It is therefore no surprise that the European People’s Party last week published a public report expressing serious concerns about the erosion of the separation of powers in Slovenia, citing abuse of the police, subjugation of the media, and attacks on journalists. The largest political group in Europe stated that it will do everything in its power to prevent further damage to Slovenian democracy.
But the crisis of parliamentary democracy in Slovenia cannot be resolved by external actors, it can only be resolved by Slovenian voters in the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled no later than March next year. The solution lies in rejecting yet another “new face” from the Kučan-Toš public opinion lab of the post-communist deep state, and instead choosing a democratic alternative under the leadership of Janša’s SDS. Only then will a democratic shift toward a truly democratic, Western European civilisational path be possible.