By: Anita Gužvič (Nova24tv.si)
In light of the recent revelations made by former Minister of the Interior Tatjana Bobnar before the National Assembly’s Commission of Inquiry investigating inadmissible political interference in the work of the police, Dr Vinko Gorenak believes that the criminal investigators should pay a visit to Prime Minister Robert Golob. According to Gorenak, Golob has committed the crimes of abuse of office and dereliction of duty.
“But we have a problem. In order to put these legal provisions into practice, we still need a criminal investigator or police officer to question Robert Golob and file a criminal complaint against him with the prosecutor’s office, which, given the public evidence, is a job for a police trainee. Next, we need a prosecutor to write a prosecution request against Robert Golob and send it to court, and even more urgently, we need a judge to convict Robert Golob. But the reality is that we do not have a police officer or a criminal investigator who would dare to do this, we do not have a prosecutor who would bring charges against him, and we do not even have a judge who would condemn this behaviour. Therefore, Robert Golob will remain innocent, even though he is not”, said Vinko Gorenak.
On Monday, Bobnar and Lindav cited a number of examples of Robert Golob’s interference in the work of the police, its staffing and more, which were part of his governing right from the start. If we follow the letter of the law, the matter is absolutely clear. All that Robert Golob has to do with the police is to appoint, first of all, the Minister of the Interior, to whom the Director-General of the Police is subordinate, and the government also appoints the Director-General of the Police. That is all, and the Minister can only give the police general mandatory instructions, not specific ones. But what apparently happened, according to the testimonies of Bobnar and Boštjan Lindav, exceeds all limits of good taste – and not only that, it is also a criminal offence which no one will prosecute, Gorenak says.
After the hearing, where Tatjana Bobnar clearly revealed the political influence of Prime Minister Robert Golob on police staffing, the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, Miha Lamut, said that we have not learned anything new. In orderly democracies, this could not have happened, Gorenak said, and after such testimonies from Bobnar and Boštjan Lindav, the Prime Minister should have resigned within hours. “However, this has not happened here, and it will not happen. With the help of the media loyal to them, they will divert the public’s attention elsewhere with some imaginary affair, and the public will forget about the obvious suspicion that Golob committed a crime.”
“Here are just three examples of completely unacceptable practices. Never before in our independent Slovenia has it happened that a Prime Minister was protected by a paramilitary unit and not by a unit of the Slovenian police, and comparisons with Drnovšek are not correct and not even accurate. I do not recall at any time in the history of independent Slovenia that the Prime Minister, either personally or through the Minister of the Interior, dictated who would be at the top of the police force and who would be directly next to the police chief, and all of this has obviously happened. And last but not least, never in the history of independent Slovenia has it happened that the head of the National Bureau of Investigation (Darko Muženič) ordered the head of the police to do something without the knowledge of the Minister of the Interior and threatened with publications on POP TV that would be harmful to him. This government is setting new standards.”
The media launched a “new affair” to really silence this one
Interestingly, just a few days after the testimonies, it seems as if nothing has happened. The mainstream media have found a “new affair” to really silence this one. Through Rok Snežič, they are now attacking the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) instead of dealing with the current Prime Minister. Gorenak, for his part, says that the real affair will not be reported by media owned or influenced by the left. “Snežič has nothing to do with the SDS party, as far as I know. The SDS party was included in the story by the regime’s media because that is convenient and good for them, and the content is not really all that important to them. What is more important is the question of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič. She should never have been put in the place of the second person of the state, but in a situation of new faces, she has been. Perhaps there is a bigger conflict in sight between her and Golob and, of course, the resulting division of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) into two parts, which, however, does not mean early elections,” Gorenak believes.
A link between the Freedom Movement, Uncensored and POP TV
“It is interesting that a few hours after my conversation with Golob about resigning, an article appeared on the web portal Uncensored (Necenzurirano) saying: ‘Are the police actually Janša’s and who all stayed in their positions because Lindav and Bobnar did not clean it up’,” Bobnar said at the hearing. Does this mean a link between Golob and the Uncensored web portal? “The answer lies in the 100,000 euros that Golob, in his capacity as former President of the Management Board of the Gen-I energy company, transferred to the Uncensored web portal and Vesna Vuković. The latter is now the Secretary-General of the Freedom Movement party, who apparently has more influence behind the scenes on the most important decisions of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia than perhaps even Golob himself. There is a strong link between the Freedom Movement party, the Uncensored web portal, and POP TV. There is more going on in this relationship than Golob would like to know.”
The decision is in the hands of the New Slovenia party (NSi)
Bobnar also revealed that Vuković and Damir Črnčec were preparing a construct of media destruction for her personally as a minister, so that Golob could replace her. What does this say about the government’s connection to the media? “Vuković and Črnčec have and will prepare several media constructs to destroy the “targets” they will choose with or without Golob’s knowledge. POP TV will be the executioner. At the moment, the target is the News Slovenia party (Nova Slovenija – NSi) with the Motorway Company of the Republic of Slovenia (DARS) story. I hope that this will make those responsible in the NSi party come to their senses and help them realise that they are not a factor in the plans of Golob and the left-wing political opposition,” Gorenak said, adding that the NSi party has more power in its hands than we think. Firstly, a serious and concerted way of working in the Commission for the Control of Public Finances. And in addition, just three signatures and a Commission of Inquiry into the business practices of Gen-I could take Golob away in a matter of weeks. But the decision is in the hands of the NSi party.