By: Peter Jančič (Spletni časopis)
The result of the hard work done for Svoboda by SOVA director Joško Kadivnik, NPU director Darko Muženič, and other personnel appointed by Robert Golob to smear and pursue the opposition will be that Golob, who has seen his coalition drop from 53 votes in parliament to 40, will keep his hold on power.
The intelligence service provided the Svoboda party with the main propaganda spin just before the election, when Janez Janša was accused of having committed high treason by allegedly ordering and paying the Israelis for wiretapping that exposed Robert Golob’s corrupt conduct and abuse of power. Golob himself directly accused him of high treason on television. Repeatedly. The prime minister acted as prosecutor and judge at the same time. Not because he had any evidence or because there was anything to it. Simply to secure an election victory and destroy his rival.
The involvement of SOVA helped just enough to prevent a complete collapse of the ruling parties in the election. Even earlier, Golob’s police, together with prosecutors, launched proceedings against four NSi MPs, because they dared to oversee the intelligence services and the police. Kadivnik, Muženič, and the rest.
A significant role was also played by millions of euros from abroad for Nika Kovač and other left‑leaning NGOs, as well as by the major media outlets. They helped because Golob appointed their bosses and ensured their funding. Recordings of conversations with prominent former politicians of the current coalition, lawyers, and heads of state‑owned companies showed how money and deals flow into the media in exchange for pre‑election favours that push aside the importance of ordinary, lawful campaigns.
Given all this, it is almost unbelievable that Svoboda did not achieve a larger lead over SDS in the election and that the composition of the governing parties dramatically lost its majority. They had power, the media, the police, the state, SOVA… And they abused all of it to the fullest. Yet they still lost their majority in parliament. Golob even came close to not entering the National Assembly at all. He made it in only by finishing last in his district. Not all votes have been counted yet, and, at least theoretically, he could still drop out.
The media lie about the “phenomenal” results of Svoboda
The state press agency STA, followed by all major media, tried to repair this fiasco with reports claiming that Svoboda’s candidates, including Golob, who nearly failed to enter parliament, achieved the best results in the country. According to this “reporting,” Matej Arčon was supposedly the top performer with 43.5 percent. This despite the fact that Janez Janša received 44.2 percent of the vote in the Ivančna Gorica district. In their manipulative support for Svoboda, they even outdid Joško Kadivnik and SOVA. We could also see how this manipulation worked in the characteristic stampede of questions directed at Janša, who strengthened his party and the right but did not achieve a relative victory, asking whether he would now resign, while coalition politicians who lost their majority and saw Svoboda drop by a dozen seats were not asked the same. They do not dare. Because they are “ours.” And they pay.
STA and the media that reported on the “brilliant” achievements of Svoboda’s candidates, even though Golob nearly remained outside parliament and Arčon did not achieve the highest district share, did not publish corrections or apologise to the public for the misleading propaganda.
Golob, with Kadivnik, slices Levica and SD like salami
Golob managed to enter parliament, but the outgoing Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, was left far outside, she became a victim of Luka Mesec. In the same district, Mesec achieved an exceptional result for Levica, lowering the shares of others on the left and preventing the election of former SD leader and foreign minister Tanja Fajon. Extreme left‑wing politics backfired on Klakočar Zupančič and Fajon. Mesec pulled those voters; others did not vote for them above average.
Mesec once again saved Levica, this time together with Vesna, so that they at least made it into parliament. A similarly bleak outcome befell Matjaž Han’s SD, which, after repeating its poor result from four years ago, lost another MP and is now nearly tied with the new party Demokrati. Golob, with Kadivnik and others, sliced up SD and Levica like salami.
It was almost expected that the election itself would be conducted unlawfully, giving the ruling parties a small additional advantage. The ruling parties also hold a majority in the electoral bodies. Early voting stations, which should have been located within districts, were placed outside them, 13 of them in Stožice in Ljubljana. The reason was simple: to make it harder for right‑leaning voters to vote (since more of them live outside the city centre). With the help of votes from these unlawfully designated polling stations, Golob secured his seat in parliament.
Objections pointing out irregularities are now being dismissed by district electoral commissions, even though it is entirely clear that they violated the law. And supposedly, no appeal against their conduct is even possible. This should worry us, because it suggests that in the next election, they do not intend to ensure that the law is followed, but rather that whatever benefits Zoran Janković (with €120,000 in rent for Stožice), Robert Golob, and the ruling parties will prevail. A few extra votes gained through cheating.
If electoral bodies ignore what the law says, then one can assume that ballots for the “wrong” candidates might simply disappear. Because the law does not matter, what matters is that “we” win. On the internet we could see the fierce campaign by left‑leaning propagandists trying to justify these violations of the law. Again, with misleading spins.
Prime Minister Golob led this army of misinformation. He accused Janša of high treason, because people learned things about Golob’s way of governing that they were not supposed to know. At the European level he shouted that right‑wing parties, meaning SDS and NSi, are anti‑European. Which is false. SDS and NSi are strongly pro‑European; right‑leaning parties brought our country from the Balkans back into the EU and NATO. Golob’s parties on the left have issues with this. For example, Levica, which is outright against NATO, the defence alliance of Europe. To lie so harshly abroad about domestic competitors is typical of Golob. He has no limits.
This week, at home, he declared SDS an undemocratic party and simultaneously called for a government of national unity without SDS, because SDS threatens his hold on power. His desire for power has carried him so far that he has completely lost his judgment. Everyone, including those on his left, should ask themselves whether such a politician is suitable to discuss the leadership of a democratic, pluralistic, and tolerant European country.
Because with what he is doing, he truly endangers democracy.
