For Prime Minister Robert Golob, misleading, telling half-truths and outright lying have become regular ways of governing. We have somehow become accustomed to the fact that his – albeit strictly choreographed and controlled – media appearances are always riddled with untruths. Usually for the sole purpose of somehow putting himself and his government on a pedestal. Lately, he has been a bit less misleading than usual, as he was apparently deliberately removed from the public eye as voter commotion was at a boiling point, and as the architects of his government are aware of the old Janez Drnovšek truth that people paradoxically like politicians who are not talked about (neither in a good nor a bad way). But Golob did not hold out for long. Namely, he is already back on the scene, and not a day goes by without him telling another lie. He recently claimed that the European Union’s financial injection to the Slovenian budget is something unique. He was quickly corrected by Peter Šuhel, former Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Janez Janša.
In one of his first statements after his political isolation ended, at a meeting of business leaders, Prime Minister Golob said: “Today’s advance, the advance payment of the first 100 million euros from the EU Solidarity Fund, is something that virtually no one in the European Union has managed to do before. And this is the result of our investment in our foreign policy capital.”
His lie was quickly exposed
His lie was quickly exposed by the former Chief of Staff of the Janša government, Peter Šuhel. As he wrote on the X social network, the Croatians received the first tranche of the European Solidarity Fund for reconstruction (worth 320 million euros) one month after the 2020 earthquake. The Greeks received solidarity aid from the same Fund (worth 1.2 billion euros) a few months after the devastating fires. Romania also received 66 million euros in a few months after the 2019 drought. In 2020 – again just a few months after the event – the Fund helped flood-hit Portugal with 375 million euros.
It is now clear that the untruths that Golob is telling are not just some unfortunate coincidences where he is honestly wrong or has been given incorrect information. It looks as if he is speaking out of momentary inspiration, behaving like politicians in the days before the invention of the World Wide Web. It is as if, in his bubble – where, since the times he was running state-owned companies, everyone agrees with him – he simply does not realise how easy it is to check the accuracy of information in modern times. We are, of course, all used to such wisemen who master all topics and share ‘verified facts’ with everyone from various bars in Ljubljana, but it is frightening that such a personality is in charge of the executive power of our country and has a very direct influence on the quality of our future life.
The long list of Golob’s lies
It should also be noted that Golob’s lies are not trivial. Namely, he described the testimony of the Minister of the Interior, who accused him of serious crimes, as “hallucinations”. In addition, last year in the National Assembly, he repeatedly denied close or any other kind of cooperation with Miloš Njegoslav Milović, but today it is known that Golob has been cooperating with Milović’s company for several years (since the times he was still the director of the state-owned Gen-I energy company) and that Milović said to the Director-General of the Police that he is the head of Golob’s security. In the last year and a half, we have become quite used to such “Golobisms”.
The long list of the Prime Minister’s lies also makes it seem as if he is actively mocking the Slovenian media landscape, which dutifully and continuously covered up his lies and bizarre statements (remember the nonsense about sea water and salt as a “cure” for Covid-19, when some media outlets then wrote articles about how good of an effect vitamin D can have against viruses…). Back then, the media still tried to cover up his blatant lies, but today, when the deep state has apparently given up on him, this happens less and less, and his eccentric tendency towards exaggeration, self-aggrandisement and grandiose predictions with no basis in reality is even more pronounced.
Sometimes, he is a bit too sincere
But sometimes, ironically, Golob can also be too honest. He admitted, without batting an eye, that he had instructed officials, including the Minister of the Interior, that the Police (and also the national media outlet RTV Slovenia) should be purged of “Janšaists” (not Janšaism, but specifically Janšaists, although he later lied again and said that he was really talking about Janšaism). Even the lady who was standing next to him when he said it (she has been following him since he was director of Gen-I) turned pale, and you could see on her face what he was thinking (probably “Robert, you don’t say that out loud!”). In this incredible honesty, Golob admitted that he envisages the executive as a complete autocracy, where the Prime Minister has the authority to replace anyone in the country who does not share in his ideology.
In this sense, it is also clear why Golob lies and misleads so often. Because he imagines power as a kind of autocracy, where the doctrine of “the king can do no wrong” applies, he is convinced that he can make reality his own and the media will help him do so. And indeed, they have – until recently.
Is the infamous “law on the recording of work” really changing?
At the meeting with the business community, Golob also mentioned that the so-called “law on the recording of work” would be amended. We have heard on several occasions that Golob speaks according to the inspiration of the moment, depending on who his interlocutor is – it is quite possible that he was only telling the business community what he thought they would like.
“On the one hand, we need to achieve security for employees, which was the intention, and on the other hand, we need to relieve the creative part of the economy so that it can better carry out its mission,” he said.
It is important to note here that the temporary halt of the implementation of the law was already announced by the Minister of the Economy, Matjaž Han, but then nothing came of it because, after the coalition summit, the law came into force as normal, which showed the strength of the Left party (Levica) within the coalition – as this is its crowning achievement within the mandate. Will the Left miss the opportunity to unnecessarily harass its “class enemies” because Golob promised to do so? Hardly likely. Let us not forget Golob’s promises to reduce the number of government representatives and how things ended there. Surely, the economists are sensible enough not to create false hopes in advance.
Mitja Iršič
