The left has announced a new big breakthrough. This time, they have set themselves the target of building 20,000 homes over the next ten years, i.e. 2,000 homes a year, starting this year. Prime Minister Golob’s announcement was quickly refuted by the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), which pointed out that he was boasting about the projects of the previous, Janša government. Severe scepticism about the project even came from a coalition party’s youth wing.
In the pre-election campaign, the former coordinator of the Left party (Levica), Luka Mesec, promised to build 30,000 flats, but then, with his wings apparently clipped, he lowered his ambitions to 20,000 flats. Later, they lowered the ambition even further, saying that they intended to create a system that would build two thousand homes a year.
That brings us to the latest big plan. The Housing Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, together with the Minister of Solidarity-Based Future, Simon Maljevac, announced “the biggest wave of public rental housing construction in independent Slovenia.”
“For the first time since Slovenia gained its independence, we have given the signal that financial support will be guaranteed and that we can plan projects more strategically. 100 million euros a year in state aid is the cornerstone of a housing policy where affordable housing will be the basis of living in Slovenia for the next 20 years. We have prepared a legislative package in this direction, which will be put up for public discussion next week,” said Simon Maljevac, the Minister of Solidarity-Based Future. To this end, a legislative package consisting of a law on the financing and promotion of the construction of public rental housing, including renovations, and an amendment to the Housing Act will be sent to the National Assembly.
The announced project will cost taxpayers (to start with) 100 million euros a year, or one billion euros over the ten years the housing venture is expected to last. But as Maljevac said, this is only a “fraction” of the funds needed.
The low price of the promises has already been noted by the coalition’s youth wing
On the other hand, an important part of the public noted that the Left party’s grandiose plans are, in fact, a cover for “unfulfilled commitments”. The far-left party has thus been dealt a blow by the youth wing of the Social Democrats coalition party (Socialni Demokrati – SD), the Youth Forum, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reports. They believe this is just another chapter of “unfulfilled promises”. They also questioned whether the Prime Minister could be trusted to start building 2,000 public rental flats this year when it took three years to draft a law that is not even currently under public debate. “Above all, we want to know how the 10-year construction of housing will be guaranteed when we are only a year away from the elections,” they wrote.
The miserable achievements of the Golob government and boasting about other people’s accomplishments
Prime Minister Robert Golob also boasted of his remarkable achievements in the field of housing construction in his reply to a parliamentary question. “We have committed ourselves to spending one billion euros over 10 years, one hundred million every year on housing construction. This year, according to the information I have, the construction of 2,000 homes is scheduled to start. Why is this important? Because in no year in the history of the Republic of Slovenia so far, since we have gained independence, have half as many housing units been built in a single year,” Golob said. But the Prime Minister clearly had bad data or was simply lying.
As SDS MP Andrej Poglajen pointed out, the Housing Fund currently has 15 projects published on its website, which could result in 1,980 apartments. Of these, 8 projects, more than half, have been postponed until 2027 and 2028, well after the end of this government’s term of office. MP Poglajen also clearly reproached the Prime Minister for the fact that the documentation for the 1,500 dwellings, which this government is now boasting about, was created during the government of Janez Janša.
Golob was also exposed in the newspaper Žurnal, where it was written that the government’s forecast of 2,000 (1,968 to be precise) flats to be built this year included 103 flats in Novo mesto that have already been built, while 955 flats are planned for next year, and there is no information yet on when the construction of 705 flats is to start.
Coalition alternative: Enabling young people to build or own their own homes
The Leader of the Opposition also joined the debate on housing policy. In response to a post on the social network X, where an online user pointed out that most of the recipients of non-profit public housing in Ljubljana are not actually Slovenians at all, but immigrants, he wrote: “True. This is also how Slovenian taxpayers are financing the left-wing campaigns to import their voters. Therefore, we intend to make it possible for young people in Slovenia, through the Guarantee Scheme and Zoning Amendment Act, to finance and build or acquire their own houses and apartments.”
Ž. K.
