By: Vida Kocjan
Robert Golob, president of the Gibanje Svoboda party, is accompanied by an affair, so he is already nicknamed the Affair on Two Legs. At the same time, he is getting involved in many new lies.
It started with his salary in the state-owned company GEN-I, where he first claimed that he had “only” 6,000 euros net salary. He then raised it to 7,000 euros. He insulted all those who proved that the company’s business report for 2020 states that he received 214,000 euros net in that year and called them liars. Then the data turned out to be accurate, which he was forced to admit himself after several weeks. It was then revealed that in five years as President of the Management Board of GEN-I he received more than 1.6 million euros gross salary, and in 2020 he received 35,423 euros per month.
Golob in pre-trial proceedings
This information has been concealed by Robert Golob in recent years in GEN-I’s business reports. However, the sum exceeds by almost half the maximum wage limit in predominantly state-owned companies set by Lahovnik’s law. Under this law, Golob would have to return the illegally obtained money. However, he claims that GEN-I was not predominantly state-owned and clearly does not intend to return the extra money. Robert Golob’s salary is currently being checked by the criminal police of the Novo mesto Police Administration, an indictment has been filed against Golob, thus he is in pre-trial proceedings.
He does not show the informative calculation of personal income tax
A record then appeared in the public that Golob had as much as 3.3 million euros in revenues in 2020. Golob responded by convening a press conference on April 14th and showing journalists from afar a kind of tax return of his income in 2020. As the only one among the presidents of the parties running in the elections, he has not shown an income tax return so far or an informative calculation of personal income tax. When asked about this, he said that he would not show it because he does not have it with him and because the decision also contains the personal data of his wife and children. The fact is that personal data on such decisions may overlap, but it is true that it shows all income, paid contributions, personal income tax, shares in companies, interest income and the like. This is therefore the reason why Golob does not show the income tax decision. The printout he showed is far from that. By the way, at one of the confrontations, the vice-president of the Gibanje Svoboda party, Urška Klakočar Zupančič (former judge), even lied about it.
Accounts abroad and allegedly stolen identity, which he did not report to police
Golob was also quick to claim he had no bank account abroad. However, on Sunday, the editor of the Siol.net portal, Peter Jančič, only hinted in his comment that Golob is probably not telling the truth. Golob responded to this immediately, not to the Siol.net portal, Golob’s statement was published on the Delo website, which is becoming his newsletter. He claimed that his identity had been stolen in the past and that a bank account had been opened in his name in a remote village in Romania.
It quickly turned out to be a bank account with Raiffeisen Bank, opened in the middle of Bucharest, five minutes away from the Romanian branch of GEN-I. The Romanian GEN-I, which according to unofficial information has already been closed, also has an account in this bank branch, but a current account is still open there, whose representative is still Robert Golob.
Raiffeisen explained to the media in detail that the opening of Golob’s personal bank account could not have been carried out without his active participation.
For a personal account in Romania, Golob initially claimed for Delo that it was opened in 2017. Two days later, he told RTV Slovenia that it was opened in 2018. He also claimed for Delo that Raiffeisen Bank does not want to show him bank documents associated with opening this account. At the same time, he showed a bank statement from his account, which was supposed to prove that there was no money in it. But beware. The bank statement refers to the period from January 3rd to 7th, 2022, i.e., for the first week of January this year. The balance is really zero, but that does not mean there was no money in that account before. It would only be credible if he showed the card with all the traffic.
At the same time, Golob still claims his identity was stolen. During the check, the police replied that Golob did not report his identity being stolen to the police.
Golob’s payment to journalists
Golob was caught in a spiral of lies when it was revealed that Vesna Vuković transferred 103,000 euros from the Necenzurirano portal from GEN-I. He is using the management of the company as an excuse, where they procrastinate, in the time after the elections. Even the Information Commissioner was involved in showing the contract to the public. However, even here, the epilogue of the story will be only after the elections.
Bosnian business and affair 15 percent
Golob told the story about the construction of power plants on the Neretva River in Bosnia and Herzegovina that he has no bills abroad (which turned out to be a lie). This was the 15 percent affair. On April 9th, Planet TV revealed a clip that was briefly published on its website by Bosnian Dnevni Avaz in March 2009, but then disappeared from servers for more than a decade. Already in 2011, the then weekly Reporter was the only one in Slovenia to draw attention to the recording and content (today it is owned by Odlazek).
The claim that Golob has no open accounts abroad turned out to be a lie.
It is a recording of a conversation about the division of commissions and ownership shares in the planned 300 million worth of hydropower construction on the Neretva River. The name of Robert Golob, the current president of the Gibanje Svoboda party, appeared on the video, and the speech was about a 15% commission. The business failed. Golob, however, now replied that there was no deal, so no commission was paid.
But beware. It was a Bosnian company Intrade Energija, co-owned by Nihad Spahalić, a good friend of Golob. The company was worthless, Spahalić then sold his stake just before the decline to Istrabenz, where Golob was one of the leaders, for an incredible 15 million euros. However, the media report that Golob’s bank account in Romania was opened soon after the transaction, which also damaged state property.
The frightening silence of the media
The biggest media do not report on Golob’s affairs at all. The work has become the house bulletin of Golob’s party, POP TV is closely connected with the Gibanje Svoboda, and the state Slovenian Press Agency does not report anything about it. All media owned by the garbage and media tycoon Martin Odlazek are silent. Each of these has its own calculations.
Obviously, they are waiting for Sunday and the election results. In the mid-confrontation Slovenia Chooses, where party representatives took part, on PlanetTV and Nova24TV, there was also the question of whether Golob should be excluded from the campaign. Aleš Hojs, Minister of the Interior and Vice President of the SDS, replied:
“I would not deal with Mr. Golob. Today, I can predict that whatever the outcome will be on Monday, Mr Golob will be a former candidate for prime minister. Whatever result he achieves, there is only two or three days left of the chances he has today before he fails. You will see reports from POP TV and other televisions as the affair begins to unfold.”
The well-informed journalist and owner of the Požareport portal also announced, citing sources from the Gibanje Svoboda, that things could change overnight immediately after Sunday’s elections, even in the event of Robert Golob’s election victory. It is far from necessary that Golob will be the prime minister for the composition of the new government. Not only because he is supposed to “break down as expected” just before the elections, but also because his current affair cannot just go away, disappear, but will continue to burden Golob. This will be an obstacle to the background of the transitional left, so they may withdraw it back to energy, to the privatisation of GEN-I, which has been his intention for a long time.
Robert Golob withdrew from the public this week, allegedly infected with covid-19, which he found through self-testing.