Prime Minister Robert Golob announced some great news on Tuesday! He cheerfully announced that the supercomputer, which will be built in Maribor, has won a 50-million-euro grant from the European Union. To this, Slovenia will add an additional 50 million euros of taxpayers’ money, which will enable us to build one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, worth more than 100 million euros. Great. But… Does the news sound a bit familiar? Prime Minister Robert Golob has been telling us since last year that Slovenia has secured a 50-million-euro European grant for a supercomputer to be built in Maribor – a server with all the hardware and support staff. Moreover, it is a pure misrepresentation that this is exclusive funding for Slovenia – as Zvone Černač pointed out, this is a project that we share with other countries.
The Slovenian government, of course, does not want to mention any of that. In the press release, they claim that the European Commission has confirmed the success of the SLOVENIAN project to set up a supercomputer and artificial intelligence factory, and that the project has received the highest score among all the countries that applied and has been praised for its professional performance. They also boast that this places SLOVENIA alongside the most technologically advanced countries. But is it really a Slovenian project?
MP and former minister Zvone Černač has exposed the truth!
“Manipulation and lies. Slovenia did not even apply independently. It joined forces with Austria in the Italian application. But half a year ago, before the application with Italy was submitted, we were already listening to Prime Minister Golob’s lies about successfully obtaining 50 million euros for a Slovenian supercomputer,” he wrote on the social network X.
This is a project where Slovenia is a minor partner, as several European countries are involved – one of them (Italy) already has such a supercomputer in Bologna. The Slovenian government is misleading by claiming that this is a Slovenian project and even gives itself credit for a matter it has practically nothing to do with.
Golob has already boasted about other people’s successes in the past
What’s more, Prime Minister Golob even boasted about his phantom supercomputer in his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, where he flaunted his “water diplomacy” by saying that “Slovenia is developing an advanced digital solution that combines Earth observation with a supercomputer and artificial intelligence to help predict floods and droughts.”
Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič said something similar: “Minister Stojmenova Duh was the main reason why Slovenia got or will get 50 million euros from Europe for a supercomputer. One of the biggest investments next year is a new supercomputer in Maribor for 100 million euros – half from the government and half from Brussels. The main credit for this goes to Minister Emilia Stojmenova Duh. There was hardly any mention of it.”
Golob has lied again
What is most striking in the whole story is that Robert Golob has lied again. In June, he claimed that Slovenia had already obtained 50 million euros in EU grants, but then he changed the story and said that our country was in the final stages of talks to obtain this money, but this was not true either. In the end, we co-financed an Italian supercomputer, which we barely got to the tender, for which Golob claimed it had already borne fruit. Today, however, the recycled story is back in the public domain – that we have now definitely obtained the 50 million euros. So, in any case, there is no possible scenario where Golob has never lied, because he has contradicted himself in various public appearances.
It is interesting to note here that the Golob government is, in general, extremely inefficient when it comes to the absorption of cohesion funds, as some politicians on the right have also clearly pointed out.
MEP Tomc: Most of the money remains unspent
Member of the European Parliament Romana Tomc responded to the absorption of 50 million euros for the so-called supercomputer by reminding the public how incompetent the Golob government is in terms of absorption of funds. She wrote on the social network X: “Let’s not forget. The Janez Janša government prepared a comprehensive Recovery and Resilience Plan and negotiated a remarkable 5.7 billion euros in funding. Money from this and other funds, e.g. Cohesion, remains unspent because the government of Robert Golob is unable to implement projects that have already been prepared.”
Former Minister Žiga Turk also spoke up, pointing out that the news had been recycled several times: “If I understand correctly, this is the same computer that has already been announced as great news a couple of times before now. This only works with a servile media and a sloppy electorate.”
The leader of the opposition, Janez Janša, also spoke out, commenting on the data on the absorption of cohesion funds, which show that Slovenia remains at the bottom of the EU rankings.
He wrote on the social network X: “Would the government care to comment on this? Or are you going to keep lying to Slovenians about how you are the best and how everyone envies us?”
Why do we even need it?
This whole story also begs the further question… What would we even do with a supercomputer if we had it?! All that fairy-tale stuff about flood forecasting can be easily done today with current simulation tools that can be run on a smartphone, and we certainly don’t need supercomputers for that. So why are taxpayers going to support half the cost of such an exotic project? Has there ever been a public debate on this? Is the public even aware of the tender?
I. K.
