Prime Minister Robert Golob, just like all the other “new” faces, will not last four years, Janez Janša recently said in a conversation for Idea television.
After a public debate in Murska Sobota entitled “Slovenia is not just Ljubljana”, the President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Janez Janša, appeared in a show on the television station Idea. At the beginning of the interview, he stressed the differences in the level of development in different parts of the country and pointed to the “excessive” centralisation that he believes we are witnessing in Slovenia. He then commented on the new path of the two long-standing political bedfellows and predicted the imminent end of the “new face” rule.
“Let’s compare two young people. If you live somewhere in the middle of Ljubljana, you have problems with traffic and crowds, and the air is a bit worse, but you have everything practically next door to your home. You need half the income to get a university degree. But if you have to struggle to get all that, if you have to go far to even attend primary school, if you don’t even have a kindergarten in your hometown, that’s a bigger problem,” Janez Janša initially pointed out.
Banning the installation of solid-fuel heating appliances is madness
The host of the television show went on to ask Janša whether his photo in front of a pile of firewood was also part of the criticism of the new energy law, which restricts the use of wood biomass and natural gas in new buildings. Janša did not answer this, but stressed that he considered the accelerated green transition to be harmful. “If the air in a big city is polluted, you can ban combustion for a while if there are alternative sources. But if you don’t have any alternative sources, banning the installation of solid fuel heating appliances or projects because there are chimneys in the buildings is madness, it is a sabotage of national security,” Janša made it clear.
“Logar should set up a party as soon as possible so there is no confusion”
The SDS party leader went on to comment on the independent path of his former political associates Pavel Rupar and Anže Logar. Last weekend, Rupar founded his own party, The Voice of Pensioners (Glas upokojencev), with which he wants to run in the European elections. However, the Cooperation Platform, launched by Anže Logar, will not take part in the said elections. “With Mr Logar, it will take some more time before he establishes a party. In our opinion, it would be good to do it as soon as possible, so that things are clarified and there is no confusion,” Janša said.
Janša is also not surprised by the remarks and accusations that these are orchestrated moves. “Some will write that this new party is only a satellite of the SDS party, others will say that we got in a fight, and I don’t know what else. But in fact, none of that is true. The fact is that Mr Logar took part in the presidential elections, that he felt that there was some potential in this address to the electorate at that time, and he is taking this policy forward,” Janša commented on Logar’s distancing from the SDS party.
At a recent party event in Kamnice, Janša announced that the next mayor of Maribor will come from the SDS party, but he said the name is not yet known because, as he said, the registration process has not yet been opened. After the merger with the list of the New Slovenian People’s Party (Nova slovenska ljudska stranka), the SDS councillors’ group is the strongest in the Maribor City Council, and Janša is also optimistic about the party’s strong youth wing in Maribor.
“There is a lot of potential, and there are also a lot of candidates for the position of mayor, because the current mayor of Maribor is not very successful,” Janša commented on the work of Maribor Mayor Saša Arsenović.
Janša: “None of the new faces has lasted four years, and this one won’t either”
Although the government coalition has a historic majority with 53 votes and a single party has 41 MPs, Janša expects early elections, but before that, the government will probably be reconstituted, which should buy the coalition parties some extra time.
“However, they clearly don’t have a candidate for this procedure yet. The European elections will probably be a milestone, then they will buy themselves another year if the reconstruction happens, but otherwise, I think we will go to early elections next spring at the latest,” Janša told Idea TV.
You can watch the show in its entirety (in Slovenian) here: https://tvidea.si/2024/01/iz-nasega-studia-janez-jansa-23-1-2024/
T. B.
