By: Sara Kovač / Nova24tv
“Since you were selling the sun in your previous job, you are sure that you can now act like the Sun King. Everything I have accused you of is not my words, but the words of your Minister of the Interior and your Director of Police. Both said that they experienced all of the above as political pressure on the police,” SDS MP Žan Mahnič asked Prime Minister Robert Golob, who recently found himself in trouble after Tatjana Bobnar and Boštjan Lindav revealed that there is political pressure on the police.
At the 5th regular session, MPs first learned about the resignation of Tatjana Bobnar from the position of Minister of Internal Affairs, who sent her resignation statement to Prime Minister Robert Golob on Friday. Golob forwarded it to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia at the beginning of the week. Then it was the turn of parliamentary questions.
“Can you imagine that during Janša’s government, SDS party PR man Nejc Brence would send an SMS to the Minister of the Interior that we will not report the tearing of posters because we know who the director of a certain police department is? Or that the cleaning of the police is not going according to the expectations of the party and the Prime Minister? As the inexplicably funded journalist Vesna Vuković, publicist of Gibanje Svoboda, and you personally, this is a rule of law for you. Can you imagine that Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj and Director of Furs Ivan Simič come to a meeting with Mandator Janša, and Rok Snežič meets them there and tells them that he is in charge of finances and tells them what and how they will work at the meeting?” Mahnič told the Prime Minister in the framework of the parliamentary question.
In the following, he recalled that when Tatjana Bobnar and Boštjan Lindav first came to him, they were met there, by the convicted criminal Miloš Njegoslav Milović, who stated in court that they were carrying cash from illegal transactions to Aleksandar Čeferin and told them that the protection of the Prime Minister will be different from now on, is this something completely acceptable for you and in accordance with ethical standards. “At the first meeting with Tatjana Bobnar and Boštjan Lindav, you demanded that the controversial Darko Muženič, who is being investigated at the European Prosecutor’s Office, be appointed head of the NPU as soon as possible. At the same time, you requested that pressure be put on this prosecutor’s office to close the case as soon as possible. Then you asked for the replacement of the director of PU Nova Gorica because you do not like him. Can you imagine that Janez Janša would do that?” Mahnič was critical, adding that he can obviously do it, because he knows that he is on the media’s safe side and because he is already very drunk from the power. “Since you were selling the sun in your previous job, you are sure that you can now act like the Sun King. Everything I have accused you of is not my words, but the words of your Minister of the Interior and your Director of Police. Both said that they experienced all of the above as political pressure on the police from your side,” Mahnič was clear.
Mahnič reminded that he had caught the Prime Minister in a lie during the parliamentary questions in November. He said that he had nothing to do with Milović and that he was nowhere to be found and that he was not in charge of his security. “You lied to us badly, Mr. Golob. You were caught lying by the director of the police, who said that Milović attends your meetings and presents himself as the head of your security. Therefore, I ask you not to lie this time and answer me the following questions: Why are you abusing your position and interfering politically with the police? What is your relationship with Milović? What are his debts and how do you pay him? Are you paying him with a contract with Gen-I? Why did you request the appointment of Darko Muženič as head of the NPU? Did you ask him to stop the investigations against Gen-I and you personally? Why did you demand the replacement of the director of the PU Nova Gorica and the dismissal of Martin Jazbec from the police? Did you know that Milović also advises the Minister of Health? Did you recommend him? Who else does he advise? Maybe even the president of the parliament, that she had the door locked so that you can no longer get to the first among equals without ringing the bell? Above all, I am interested in why you lied at the last session?”
In the introduction, Prime Minister Robert Golob pointed out that he will speak seriously about Darko Muženič, whom he described as a person who was deprived of his position with a false criminal complaint. “I will talk about the fact that at the first meeting, before anyone was appointed, including me, since there was no government yet, I said that I only wanted one thing, that the courts would decide on it as soon as possible, and they did. Everyone, including the European Court,” he said, adding that the complaint was dismissed because it was false. Golob said that he imagines a real country in such a way that the one who is falsely accused is then also rehabilitated. “This is what I expected and still expect to happen today. When someone is falsely accused due to the abuse of repressive authorities, then it is right that the rule of law comes to his defence. It is obvious to him. All complaints have been dismissed with final force and effect today,” he said, adding that it was similar at RTVS, where, according to him, the position was abused, and “the director of the television was fired with a false procedure. The process cannot be completed because, according to him, the leadership is inhibiting the functioning of the rule of law. So much for the rule of law”, he said.
Golob only admitted that he asked Milović for advice regarding security
Regarding Milović, Golob said that he was not lying. “Nothing directs and nothing leads. Mr. Milović was the head of the security service and was responsible for the security of Mr. Janez Drnovšek. I know he took good care of his safety. He was the head of his service for seven years. Of course, I know him as such, because I said that I have known him since then,” answered Golob.
“I have every right to ask anyone’s opinion. And my question to him was: What is the most appropriate way to protect me? Is it the most appropriate as it is now or are there any better examples from practice, not from theory. That is why together with the Ministry of Health, we decided to change the regulation, change the security, and transfer it to the Main Secretariat of the Government,” he said. He understood the meaning of the change of security, as it were, when announcements appeared that two children were accompanying him on the way to Brussels. “At that time, I knew that the advice to organise things differently was not something imaginary. The security guards work with you 24 hours a day, and the trust between you and them must be perfect,” insists Golob. “When I do not trust the security guards, they cannot do their job”.
Well, if we just remember at this point how Prime Minister Golob answered MP Mahnič in November about Milović, he did not say that he did not know him. If he now admitted only after the disclosure of Bobnar and Lindav that he was obviously only asking him for advice, the latter then said: “No, Mr. Milović is not in any position, not appointed, even less employed for my protection and he does not care. My security is taken care of by a service authorised for this and employed at the General Secretariat of the Government. Once again, Mr. Milović is neither employed nor worried.”
Mahnič demanded to supplement the answer and caught Golob lying
Since MP Mahnič was not satisfied with the answer, he requested its addition. Mahnič told Golob to leave the clichés aside. Namely, Mr. Lindav wrote after he was at a meeting with Golob: “We explained to the Prime Minister that we should wait until the investigation is completed and then decide to transfer Muženič back to the post of NPU director. Dr Golob replied that it was necessary to call on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to complete the investigation as soon as possible. That means you are interfering,” Mahnič was clear and continued with the content of Lindav’s note, which stated that it was explained to Golob that the police had no authority to make such a call. “At the same time, Mr. Golob said that he understands, but it is still necessary to transfer Muženić to the position of director of the NPU as soon as possible. At the end, Golob said that something needs to be done as soon as possible with the one down there who is the director at my end,” Mahnič recalled regarding the note of acting director of the police and added that Lindav wrote that Milović was waiting in the hall. In a short interview with Lindav, the aforementioned person said that he was in charge of protecting the president. “You have been caught lying again,” Mahnič was clear. In response to a parliamentary question to MP Kaloh, the Ministry of Health replied that it did not participate in the preparation of the regulation on security and that it is necessary to ask the General Secretariat of the Government for this. “They wrote it, they should be asked”.
Mahnič reminded that during the meeting, Lindav defended the position of the profession regarding the protection of protected persons, to which Milović strongly opposed. “So, Mr. Prime Minister, a month ago you said that you know who he is, but that you have nothing to do with him and that he is not in charge of your security. But here we have black on white. The minister also wrote that with the fact that you and Mrs. Vuković dictate who should be appointed where, you interfere in the work of the police, that this is the politicisation of the police”, added Mahnič and asked the Prime Minister again what he has to do with Milović? “He was in several jobs, everywhere he was wrongfully fired,” he added.
In his reply, Golob repeated that Muženič had been legally acquitted of all charges. He asserted that only the Ministry of the Interior can file a security regulation. “The Ministry of Internal Affairs also filed it. Before that, this did not contradict this regulation in any way”, asserted Golob. He said that he should never hide that Milović gave him an opinion on how to organise. He claims, however, that he should not be in charge of the security service. “He advised me as a private person whom I knew from a past life. No contract and no employment relationship were ever entered into within the government structure.”
The most abused word of the year is “freedom”
Regarding Golob’s answer, Mahnič said that the Prime Minister did not even explain why he requested the replacement of PU Nova Gorica. The MP explained that the problem is because Golob demanded that Muženič come to the head of the NPU right from the start. Regarding pictures of children, he said that people have their phones with them, and that no security guard can prevent someone from taking pictures of him and the children. “You say that you do not look at the party card. You are looking at something more. You put your wedding witness in charge of the HSE. Not to mention how staffing in the police force was done according to your dictates.” It is funny that the most abused word of the year is “freedom”. “What we have today and what you are doing is not freedom at all, at most the opposite. In this National Assembly, we need to discuss where the limits are to where politics can go in the police. You made fantastic promises, but you are doing exactly what you accused”. Mahnič said that he was disappointed with the coalition partners, who praised Bobnar so much some time ago. “Mr. Golob, you have gone too far, you are destroying the Slovenian police, its reputation, you want to dictate how someone should be placed where”.
At the beginning of the session, the leader of the SDS parliamentary group, Jelka Godec, made a procedural proposal that refers to Chapter 5 of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, Item 3, which regulates the relationship between the National Assembly and the government, and Article 249, (paragraph 1), where it is written that the government, the minister, the director general respond in writing to the parliamentary question/initiative within 30 days. She pointed out that the deadline was exceeded in the case of six questions. In one case, it was even a question to the government.