Changing things up to appear more glamorous than they are, concealment, deceit, and highly biased reporting. These are all the things that the mainstream media has done for Robert Golob. For some, it has paid off more, for others, less. And if he has not managed to thank them for it yet, he did just that on Thursday, at the anniversary of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda). He made it very clear to his loyal journalists that they would “fit right in to the Freedom Movement party.”
“Can I say something informally?…” Prime Minister Robert Golob said with a smile on his face to the journalists of the Slovenian Press Agency, media outlets 24ur and N1 and others, before making his statement on the anniversary of the establishment of the Freedom Movement party. “You would fit right in to the Freedom Movement party,” he said, whereupon everybody laughed. At the event, we could see Meta Roglič, Anže Božič, Tanja Gobec and others. And, of course, Golob’s loyal PR representative, Vesna Vuković, was also there, who also “deservedly” moved from the position of a journalist to the position of Golob’s spokesperson. She, too, “fit right in to the Freedom Movement party.”
“You would fit right in to the Freedom Movement party,” Robert Golob told journalists from the mainstream media at a press conference to mark the anniversary of the establishment of his party, the Freedom Movement. All the journalists of the dominant media outlets that were present smiled and nodded, and even Golob’s PR representative, Vesna Vuković, was there, and was in a similarly wonderful mood. She was one of the main actors who contributed to the glorification of Golob when she was still an “independent journalist” at the Necenzurirano.si web portal (“Uncensored”). A media outlet that was heavily financed by the state-owned Gen-I energy company, which Golob ran before becoming the Prime Minister, and which systematically attacked the government of Janez Janša.
The mainstream media has been protecting Robert Golob since before the elections. Even after he was already elected Prime Minister, they still did not start playing the role of “watchdogs”, which is the fundamental mission of journalists – instead, their lying continued. Not only did they wrap the idea of him in glamour and present him as a ‘saviour’, they also deliberately helped him cover up other controversial deals from his time as the President of the Management Board of the Gen-I energy company. From the Balkan hydroelectric and biomass deals in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the purchase of his own company with the money from the company Istrabenz Gorenje. And the various machinations and accounts abroad, which he claims are not his but were created because somebody stole his identity, right up to the latest high-profile Albanian financial affair, which increasingly suggests that the “saviour” Golob has been financing Kosovo politicians with Slovenian state money. There has been no word from the mainstream media on this. Thus, at the expense of the citizens who feel the consequences of this the most (especially in their own pockets), he has been pushed into a position where this man gets to decide our future.
We are witnessing the collapse of the system, but Golob says that they have had a “successful year”
In addition to confirming “who belongs where,” Golob also boasted about having the largest party in the coalition and about the unity of the coalition, which is ironic given that we keep hearing about how people within the coalition are not aligned. The Left party (Levica), in particular, stands out, and, more recently, the Social Democrats (Socialni Demokrati) have been expressing differing opinions from the Freedom Movement, too. Golob also boasted about a fairly successful year, and many of those present probably wondered what his measure of success was, when all the systems – with healthcare, which is the basis, at the forefront – are falling apart. Everything is getting more expensive, the standard of living of Slovenians is falling – but Golob believes that they have had a “successful year” and, as he said, 2023 will be even better and “a key year for the implementation of the country’s structural reforms.”
The Freedom Movement party was formed on the 26th of January 2022, on the basis of, or by transforming, the Green Action Party (Stranka zelenih dejanj), which was founded and led by Jure Leben. At the congress in question, Robert Golob was elected President, and he led the party to victory in the parliamentary elections in April. A big thanks for this goes to the mainstream media and the creation of public opinion through the Mediana and Ninamedia companies that conduct public opinion polls (we assume that they also “fit right in to the Freedom Movement party,” to which the majority of citizens who voted for Golob succumbed). The will of the people was to elect Golob, but what was not the will of the people was the return of Alenka Bratušek and Marjan Šarec, whose parties did not get enough votes to get into parliament, but they are once again in positions of power, as they are both ministers.
What kind of democracy is Golob talking about, when he has put certain individuals in management positions that the people did not want from the start? “This week, the government has come to life in the form that the coalition envisioned from the start,” he said. Logically, everything is being put together in the way it was planned –give me your support, and I will push you forward – exactly as it was planned. Whether you are Vesna Vuković or Alenka Bratušek, the rewards keep on coming.
Tanja Brkić
