By: Gašper Blažič
Has the circle around Prime Minister Robert Golob finally realised that the joke is over? With just six months to go before parliamentary elections, the coalition, especially the largest ruling party, is sinking ever deeper into absurdity.
As experience shows, the public did not warmly embrace the “wedding of the year” in Strunjan. On the website 24ur.com, comment sections under articles about the wedding had to be closed, and even semi-official public opinion polls failed to show a positive response to the event that was supposed to pull Golob’s ratings out of the mud. Unsurprisingly, nervousness within the ruling coalition is growing, and as we have written before, the whole situation resembles the behaviour of the LDS party in autumn 2004, when it clung to the hope of winning another mandate under Anton Rop.
The Prime Minister’s bride as a mafia “padrona”
Let’s be honest: the LDS government back then, compared to today’s Freedom Movement, which is supposedly a reincarnation of Drnovšek’s former party, still looked relatively normal. Politics at the time was far less showbiz-oriented than it is now, despite the celebrity presence at the famous LDS convention in Cankar Hall. Today, it’s clear that we are dealing with the bizarre public appearances and influence of Tina Gaber on political affairs, especially on her newlywed husband, Robert Golob. As one reader suggested, it is in the details of this “turbo-folk showbiz” that we see the manners brought in by the would-be “First Lady,” who allegedly claimed an exclusive right to lecture foreign diplomats, while dispatches from embassies in Slovenia point to the utterly ruined reputation of what was once the most promising EU candidate state. Tina Gaber posted a video on Instagram with a mafia-style soundtrack. The voice in the clip says: “I am Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria.” She likely did not realise the absurdity of what she had posted, thereby compromising herself. Our reader concluded, and we tend to agree, that Tina Gaber behaves like a kind of mafia “padrona,” building her fame and fortune on the blood of the poor, illicit money, vast amounts of cocaine, fraud, and intrigue. Of course, this is a value judgment from our reader, not a direct accusation against the Prime Minister’s bride.
The spirit of drug lord Escobar…
It often happens that those intoxicated by fame and power subconsciously post something that ends up compromising them. It is worth recalling who Pablo Escobar was: a notorious figure who filled the pages of global newspapers in the 1990s until he was killed in a shootout with police. He was an unimaginably wealthy cocaine king and head of the Medellín cartel, briefly a politician, and made his fortune smuggling illegal substances into the U.S. According to El País, between 1989 and 1993, he was responsible for around 5,000 deaths linked to mafia wars or assassinations. Netflix produced the documentary series Narcos about him, and he was also portrayed in the 1989 film Licence to Kill, where Agent 007, stripped of his license to kill, hunts down Colombian drug lord Francisco Sanchez, responsible for the death of CIA agent Felix Leiter’s fiancée. Sanchez was known not only for bribing U.S. police officers but also for importing drugs into the U.S. from his mini-island-state Isthmus via fuel trucks, with the drugs chemically extracted in laboratories. This kind of “concrete mixing” actually exists (we wrote extensively about it years ago in Demokracija).
… and the wicked queen Jezebel
Let’s return to Tina Gaber and her now-infamous PR engineering and her ability to wrap the Prime Minister around her finger, so much so that some compare her to the notorious biblical figure Jezebel, wife of the sinful King Ahab, who persecuted the prophet Elijah. As is known, during the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV this May, the Slovenian celebrity-political couple, nicknamed “RoberTina” by some, visited the Pope and reportedly asked him to bless a plush teddy bear intended for a girl with cancer under the patronage of the Golden Ribbon Institute. Last week, the same institute organised the blessing of a chapel, where once again a plush toy appeared as the main mascot (this time a dog named Zlatko, supposedly there to “protect” children?!). The central figures at the event were, once again, the newlywed Prime Minister and his influential wife. Social media posts about the chapel blessing stirred controversy, with some pointing fingers at the Franciscan friars who oversee the shrine at Brezje. But there is no reason for blame, the friars and the shrine were simply used for government propaganda and a display of “the emperor’s new clothes.” The Golob-Gaber couple appeared as guests of the Golden Ribbon and could not be turned away. It is fair to say that Gaber and Golob exploited the event, of course, with the help of the organisers. And it may be time to reflect on this, especially when the government next adopts a restrictive measure that affects the
Did they plan a church wedding too?
There is also gossip circulating that Golob and Gaber wanted a church wedding, specifically in the famous Trnovo parish in Ljubljana, associated with France Prešeren and the writer-priest Franc S. Finžgar. The information came just before editorial deadline, so its accuracy could not be verified. However, our source claims that parish priest Tone Kompare asked whether they had received the sacraments, and found they did not meet the conditions for a church marriage (Gaber allegedly confused baptism with vaccination). Interestingly, Kompare was attacked by the media last December for alleged xenophobia in parish bulletins. Later, a story surfaced about supposed neglect at the St. John the Baptist Home, which he founded. The meeting in question took place early this summer, but a video had already circulated on platform X in April, just before Easter, showing the Trnovo priest and the Prime Minister delivering a holiday greeting together. This raises questions about what really happened and why Golob sought “refuge” with a priest whom Mladina had portrayed as nearly a criminal just months earlier. In any case, even if the Golobs truly planned a church wedding, it is clear that the plan failed, though it is said a priest could have been found to organise a seemingly valid sacramental ceremony.
The defeat of the ruling left is only a matter of time
It is almost symptomatic that the government’s propaganda machine is now polishing Tina Gaber’s image more aggressively, scrubbing her biography of anything potentially controversial. Meanwhile, new parties are sprouting like mushrooms after rain. Vladimir Prebilič announced his party will be called “Gremo” (“Let’s Go”), reminiscent of Igor Šoltes’s former party “Verjamem” (“I Believe”), which left behind little more than a void. The emergence of these parties poses a serious risk to the transitional left, as votes will fragment even within its ranks. This proliferation of parties also increases the number of “dead votes,” affecting the proportional makeup of future parliamentary representation. On the right, a new party is reportedly being planned by Aleš Štrancar to compete directly with NSi, encouraged by disillusioned (former) NSi members. One thing is clear: the current ruling nomenclature is nearing its end. Even the clumsy PR campaigns surrounding the increasingly ambitious Tina Gaber suggest rising panic. And the closer the elections get, the more the current government will behave like a wounded beast. Its defeat is now only a matter of time.
