By: Peter Jančič (Spletni časopis)
Freedom Movement president Robert Golob, who is also serving as acting head of government, posted a video online in which he admits that he was shocked on Friday when a majority in parliament, without the parties with which he had led the government in recent years (Freedom Movement, SD and Levica), elected Resni.ca president Zoran Stevanović as Speaker of the National Assembly.
He described the event as follows: “A deception.” This is also the term I used in my Sunday column. It is not hard to guess how Golob will respond.
He labelled his opponents, the main one being Janez Janša (SDS), as right‑wing populists. Which is comical, the author claims, because he himself is known for making statements that cannot be trusted, a characteristic of populists. In his statement, he announces a tough fight to retain power.
Golob already used most of his first term in office to hold on to power, carrying out extensive purges in companies, the media, the police and other institutions influenced by politics, instead of doing serious work for the country. At the same time, his coalition, with the help of the Speaker of Parliament Urška Klakočar Zupančič, abused its authority to prevent the largest opposition party, SDS, from exercising oversight over the intelligence agency SOVA, the police and military intelligence. During the election campaign, the police and state intelligence services were misused to discredit the opposition and support the coalition’s own campaign. Criminal proceedings were initiated against as many as four NSi MPs because they were checking whether the police had been abused in the purges at DARS. And SOVA was directly involved shortly before the election to smear SDS in order to cover up a corruption scandal involving leaked recordings of prominent centre‑left politicians, directors and lawyers, centred around DARS, Zoran Janković, state‑owned companies and the media.
Because the election results were, despite all these alleged abuses, a considerable failure for the ruling parties, Freedom Movement, SD and Levica fell from 53 to only 40 MPs, they are now trying in every possible way to gain additional support from the Democrats, Resni.ca, NSi and SLS. Meanwhile, they have viewed SDS as their main enemy for more than four years.
The first confrontation will come with the question of whom President Nataša Pirc Musar will nominate to parliament as the candidate for prime minister, and whether that candidate will be confirmed. There is precedent for MPs rejecting a nominee, this happened with Zoran Janković, which amounted to a vote of no confidence in President Danilo Türk, who was swayed by his own political alignment with the left. In a potential second round, the president is no longer the only possible nominator.
But the election of the prime minister is only the first step. The next test is the confirmation of ministers.