Immediately after the elections, the coalition parties – the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), the Social Democrats (Socialni demokrati – SD) and the Left party (Levica), led by Robert Golob, began to take over the levers of power in the economic sector. The current government took power on the 1st of June 2022, and then, in a fast-track procedure, it proposed to the National Assembly, among other things, the recall of two members of the Supervisory Board of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (Slovenski državni holding – SDH) – namely, Božo Emeršič, MSc, and Professor Dr Leon Cizelj. The latter filed a lawsuit and won.
Now, two years after it all went down, the Administrative Court has ruled that the dismissal of Leon Cizelj was unlawful and that the state must reimburse all the costs of the proceedings, together with statutory default interest. The state was represented in the trial by the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Slovenia.
Brutal political staffing
Despite numerous warnings about the illegality of the decision, the National Assembly dismissed Leon Cizelj from his position on the 22nd of June 2022, following the proposal of the government, which allegedly decided that he did not meet the legal conditions to be a member of the Supervisory Board of Slovenian Sovereign Holding. Cizelj had already warned at the time of his dismissal: “This is brutal political staffing by the new government. Brutal, especially in the sense of using half-truths or bypassing the facts to justify something that is not true, especially when several commissions, as well as the National Assembly, had at one point considered my experience to be relevant, and now the same National Assembly, with a slightly different composition, found that my experience was not relevant at the time. The matter is a little contradictory.”
Cizelj was accused by Golob’s people of not having enough experience, even though before his appointment as the Supervisor at the Slovenian Sovereign Holding, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Radioactive Waste Agency and Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of the companies Gen energija and ELES. He also had international management experience, having been Chairman of the Board of Directors of the European Network for Nuclear Education (bringing together more than 50 European universities and major nuclear stakeholders, including industry), President of the European Atomic Energy Association, Member of the Board of Directors of the European Platform for Sustainable Nuclear Energy, and President of the Nuclear Engineering Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Golob’s people lied
After his dismissal in the National Assembly on the 22nd of June 2022, Cizelj decided to take legal action to contest the allegations. It has now been confirmed that Golob’s people simply made up and lied about his unsuitability for the position.
Cizelj first sought a declaration of nullity of the decision of the National Assembly to recall him from his position as the Supervisor at the Slovenian Sovereign Holding at the Ljubljana District Court. In April last year, this Court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction over the case and dismissed the action. Cizelj appealed to a higher court, which changed the decision, ruling that the Ljubljana District Court did not, in fact, have jurisdiction over the case, and the case was subsequently taken over by the Administrative Court. In accordance with case law and the Constitutional Court’s decision, the Court held that the dismissal of the Supervisor at the Slovenian Sovereign Holding was an administrative act. The Administrative Court has now ruled that Cizelj’s dismissal was unlawful. There is no right of appeal against this ruling. Cizelj’s lawyer, Franci Matoz, has announced a claim for damages. Matoz said last week that he and Cizelj will discuss the amount of the claim.
Why did Golob’s team need a “clean” Slovenian Sovereign Holding?
The Bank Assets Management Company (DUTB) is currently managing the state’s equity investments in more than 50 companies, with a total value of more than 10 billion euros. The government proposed the dismissal of Leon Cizelj and Božo Emeršič on the 16th of June 2022, and the National Assembly did so on the 22nd of June 2022. As of the 1st of September 2022, Žiga Debeljak, a friend of Golob’s, took over as Chairman of the Management Board, while Karmen Dietner took over the leadership of the supervisory board. The Supervisory Board then approved a generous increase in the salaries of the Chairman and the members of the Management Board. Žiga Debeljak, Chairman of the Management Board, saw his salary increase from 12,800 euros to 18,500 euros gross (a whopping increase of 5,700 euros), while the salary of Janez Tomšič, Member of the Management Board, was raised from 11,500 euros to 16,500 euros gross. The reasons cited were the increased workload due to the energy crisis and the merger of the Bank Assets Management Company, the comparison with the salaries of companies belonging to Slovenian Sovereign Holding, and the fact that – except for inflation – the salaries of the members of the Management Board (in line with the so-called Lahovnik’s Law) had not been adjusted since 2013. Chairman Debeljak, known as Janković’s boy wonder, beheaded the managements of major state-owned companies right at the start of his mandate and set up management boards to suit the post-transition godfathers of the deep state, as the newspaper Finance wrote at the time.
Today, data in the online database Gvin.com show that Žiga Debeljak was appointed as a member of the Supervisory Board of the company Gen, d. o. o. on the 16th of August 2022. Prior to that, he was also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank Assets Management Company (DUTB), which stopped existing as an entity on the 30th of December 2022 and was merged with the Slovenian Sovereign Holding. Žiga Debeljak is also a co-founder of the Danilo Türk Foundation, established in 2010, which is called Let them dream (Pustimo jim sanje).
Political purges
The ruling coalition, led by Robert Golob, replaced supervisory boards wherever possible at the second cabinet meeting. This happened in the companies SODO, Borzen, Eles and DRI. Who were the new appointees? Andrej Ribič and David Skornšek, both from the Freedom Movement party, were appointed to the Supervisory Board of Eles. Mateja Čuk Orel, a supervisor at the GEN company, who
is linked to Robert Golob, was appointed to the Supervisory Board of SODO. Žiga Fišer, then-spokesperson of the Freedom Movement party, was appointed to the Supervisory Board of Borzen. Simon Detelj Bah, who stood as a candidate for a parliamentary seat on the Freedom Movement party’s list, Branko Ribič, brother of the Freedom Movement’s Chief of Staff Andrej Ribič, and Tanja Šarabon, who was Secretary-General in the government of Alenka Bratušek, were appointed to the Supervisory Board of DRI. Thus, at the sitting of the National Assembly on the 22nd of June 2022, MP Zvone Černač (Slovenian Democratic Party – SDS) pointed out that “In the first two weeks of the Robert Golob government, there were more personnel changes than in the same period during the governments of Miro Cerar, Marjan Šarec and Janez Janša combined.”
Dr Leon Cizelj: “Unfortunately, the illegal situation can no longer be rectified.”
Professor Dr Leon Cizelj wrote that the Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia ruled in its judgment (I U 1386/2023-76) that the National Assembly illegally dismissed him from the Supervisory Board of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding on the 22nd of June 2022 on the proposal of the government. There is no possibility to appeal against this judgment. “Unfortunately, the illegal situation can no longer be remedied,” he added. He further wrote: “The rule of law? Actually, no. The top of the executive branch of power and the top of the legislature (the government and the National Assembly) have created an illegal state of affairs. The judiciary, while it can identify illegality, cannot remedy it. I congratulate the Administrative Court for a very clear, logical and unambiguous decision. And congratulations to Franci Matoz for his excellent representation!” This is how Dr Leon Cizelj, Head of the Reactor Engineering Department at the Jožef Stefan Institute, responded to the Administrative Court’s decision on the X network. He was appointed as a Supervisor at the Slovenian Sovereign Holding by the National Assembly in September 2021 and dismissed by the Golob government in June 2022.
Janez Janša: “The consequences are irreversible.”
The Administrative Court’s ruling shows that the ruling party simply lied that Dr Leon Cizelj did not fulfil the conditions when he was appointed to the Supervisory Board of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding. They carried out a personnel purge, thereby gaining full influence in important state-owned companies. Slovenian Sovereign Holding oversees companies that are owned or co-owned by the state, which, in total, are worth more than 10 billion euros.
Janez Janša also reacted to the decision of the Administrative Court, which found a breach of the law in the implementation of the purge at Slovenian Sovereign Holding. He began by “congratulating lawyer Franci Matoz, who represented Dr Cizelj, on the legal battle he has won.” He then pointed out that the legal proceedings had lasted for two years. The illegally appointed remain in the Slovenian Sovereign Holding. The consequences are irreversible. Taxpayers will pay the compensation. He further warned: “No punishment for the Golob coalition, either. They will continue to do the same until we stop them.”
The Freedom Movement government, drunk on the election result, illegally dismissed or “purged the Janšaists” from all posts
Jelka Godec, MP and leader of the SDS party parliamentary group, explained what actually happened in June 2022. “On the 22nd of June 2022, the Freedom Movement coalition took all the necessary steps to remove two members as Supervisors from the Slovenian Sovereign Holding in one day in the National Assembly. First, at the meeting of the Commission for Public Office and Elections in the morning, despite the strong protest of the SDS group, the members of the Committee from the Freedom Movement, Social Democrats and the Left parties voted to dismiss Dr Leon Cizelj and Božo Emeršič, MSc. In the afternoon of the same day, the 6th extraordinary session of the National Assembly was first extended to include the dismissal of the supervisors of the Slovenian Sovereign Holding, the agenda was approved and then the vote on the dismissals was taken. Two years later, it has also been proved that we in the SDS parliamentary group were right at the time when we pointed out that members of the Freedom Movement coalition, drunk on the election result, were illegally dismissing and, as they say, ‘purging the Janšaists’ (supporters of Janez Janša) from all positions. And today, it will not be the Speaker of the National Assembly, Urška Klakočar Zupančič, or Janja Sluga as Chair of the Committee for Public Office and Elections, or the members of the Freedom Movement, Social Democrats or the LEft parties, or Robert Golob who will take responsibility. It is us, the taxpayers, who will have to pay.”
Vida Kocjan
