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Friday, February 14, 2025

Who rules Slovenia?

By: Dr Stane Granda

The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia states: “In Slovenia, power belongs to the people. Citizens exercise it directly and through elections, according to the principle of separation of powers into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.” Not a word about agencies.

The complications surrounding the electricity network fee have revealed to the public the role of so-called “independent” agencies. Independent from whom? The electricity lobby? They claim they were created by European mandate and stand above the government of the day – not to mention the people, their interests, benefits, and needs. In the name of some supposed expertise and the needs of the state, they can independently exploit citizens. They have oversight bodies that represent neither the authorities nor the people but instead protect them from the public.

Before the dust had even settled on the network fee controversy, we were introduced to the Spirit agency, which, among other things, “independently” distributes European funds for the economic transformation of former mining regions. How generous Europe is! Yes, but only because “independent social democrats” oversee the distribution of money, awarding millions to their comrades – including as compensation for a building on Litijska Street. Poor them, their party is so deeply in debt that they had to sell a former Jewish villa, whose owners perished under the Nazis, and now they are squeezed into an unknown location. The independent agency is rescuing them at the expense of the miners. The real tragedy is that this was exposed just as three miners were buried alive and at a time when the owner of state property worth approximately €12 billion could not come up with €80,000 – half a year’s salary for a director – to keep a disability enterprise alive. At the same time, they created a new position for his assistant, whose annual salary will exceed that amount. The money exists – just not for the right people.

“Slovenia is a legal and social state.” But what and for whom is the constitutional “social welfare”?

There are many independent agencies that allegedly look after the “good and the future of the state”, a state that is apparently above its own citizens. Their employees do not have to worry about price hikes, which spread across Slovenia like sludge from the Velenje mine. National television recently revealed that independent agencies are the primary means of funnelling state money into the pockets of wealthy individuals who rent them office spaces. Since when is theft called independence? Soon, they might surround these agencies with barbed wire – not just to be independent but to be safe from the citizens whose money they squander and whose future they are destroying.

What is happening to Slovenia? Whose country is it? Is it the property of independent agencies? Who appoints them? For whom was the constitution written? What is the Constitutional Court doing?

It is easy to write into the constitution that Slovenia is a social and legal state – especially when those in power do not take it seriously. This is proven not only by the constant theft, which has become part of the system and the mission of the so-called workers’ party, but above all by the worsening situation of pensioners, particularly those in need of healthcare and social assistance. We have a special Ministry for a Solidary Future, which, apart from issuing statements, has nothing to show – least of all knowledge, the first prerequisite for such work. The same or even worse applies to everything related to the government’s relationship with citizens. People are merely cash cows.

The departure of Damir Črnčec, one of the most capable government officials, is revealing. Not only did he abandon his own, not for the first time, but it also suggests that new elections are closer than we think. It is time for Slovenians to reflect on why we even sought independence. Was it really so that we could be ruled by an assortment of agencies whose primary function is to funnel money into the pockets of the already rich? The rising cost of electricity – now supposedly the primary energy source – will drive up the prices of many essentials, starting with bread. It is time to wake up and clearly and loudly declare that we established this country for ourselves, not for plunderers who, since independence, have been “liberating” us through privatisations and schemes like “independent” agencies.

Enough of this government serving the financial oligarchy. Slovenia will never be Switzerland – because, for those in power, it already is. They take from citizens according to their own needs, while we are the ones who sweat. How long will Kučan & Co. – who are at the root of it all – continue to exploit our patience?

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