The regular elections to the National Assembly should be held in spring 2026, but it seems that the centres of power are already preparing for early parliamentary elections. In fact, some pro-government media are already running articles with the headline “What if Robert Golob were to resign?” showing a picture of Prime Minister Robert Golob in the company of a ballot box.
“I have already spoken once about the fact that Janša will not see this film – of me stepping down,” Prime Minister Robert Golob said after the European elections, where the largest opposition party – the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) won convincingly. The latter won such a large share of the vote that it managed to get four Members of the European Parliament, more than the final tally of all coalition parties combined. The decline in the number of votes compared to the results of the latest national elections has led many to wonder whether the Prime Minister will resign, but he has made it clear that this will not be the case.
On the web portal, where a change of editors was arranged after the election, speculation about early elections is rife
After half of the mandate has been marked by affairs, personnel changes, and the replacement of a whole series of ministers, and there is still no sign of the many reforms that were so ambitiously announced, speculation about early elections has begun in light of the dissatisfaction of the people, who are fed up with listening to promises and even statements of feigned ignorance about how the government planned some of its work for the second mandate, even though it is quite clear that the programme for the work of the coalition was written for the period 2022-2026 and it is realistically hard to believe that such a line-up, which has lost touch with the reality of the problems that the people and the economy are facing, would even get a second mandate.
The Siol web portal has now apparently started thinking about early elections in light of the announcement of the creation of a bunch of new parties. The recent announcement of Anže Logar‘s party, which is to be formed by the end of the year, is listed as just one of them. It is also mentioned that there is a palpable pre-election mood to be felt among the coalition partners.
It is a telling message
The Siol web portal – which is now highlighting how everything is currently in the hands of the Prime Minister, who can decide to leave by resigning or by asking for a vote of no confidence, which he can tie to the adoption of a certain law – has often been labelled a pro-government media, since the Prime Minister, with the help of his former right-hand woman Vesna Vuković, arranged for a change of editor after the electoral victory. Peter Jančič, former editor of Siol and editor of the Online Journal (Spletni časopis), pointed out that, as a rule, headlines in state-owned media present a message. However, he says, the resignation on the left usually comes after a visit from the former President Milan Kučan. Although there has been no recent media coverage of the visit, there was a lot of talk last week about the police denunciation, which the Prime Minister did not receive with enthusiasm and which caused him to hit back at the former Minister of the Interior, Tatjana Bobnar, with all guns blazing.
Jančič also drew attention to the author of the article, which was the number one news story on the Siol portal from early morning until almost noon, Gašper Lube. According to Jančič, Lube was brought to the portal by the new editor, Mihael Šuštaršič, and was among the 571 journalists who have spoken out against Janša in the past.
Boštjančič instead of Golob
The Minister of Finance, Klemen Boštjančič, was mentioned as a potential replacement for the current Prime Minister at a time when there had been speculation in the past about the decision of the godfathers from the background to find a replacement for the current Prime Minister. Since the coalition MPs are unlikely to want to lose their positions, it is likely that many would also agree in the end to a replacement for Golob, who is increasingly complicating his statements in public, even making statements that turn out to be untrue in the end, while also claiming that the problem with the use of the dual form is to blame. However, as some of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) members are reportedly not in favour of a change, this manoeuvre will probably have to wait. However, sufficient support for a change in the coalition ranks may prevent early elections, and despite the resignation, early elections may not necessarily happen, as we have seen recently in the case of the resignation of Marjan Šarec.
The fact that more and more signs are pointing towards early elections was recently pointed out by the leader of the opposition in a statement given outside the gates of the Celje District Court, where he is defending himself in the Trenta – or, should we say, Patria 2 – trial. The fact that we are witnessing a sharp escalation of the fights on the left in light of the recent criminal indictment was also recently pointed out to our media by political analyst Dr Matevž Tomšič, who says, or rather speculates, that “behind the scenes, there are people who installed Golob, who made him into the so-called new face, and who have now finally had enough of him“.
A. H.
