We have a government that was able to win because of the help of non-governmental organisations, which is why the said government mainly gives money to NGOs, which even write legislation for it. And on the other hand, we will get pensions that are higher by 5 euros than before, wages that are 130 euros lower, electricity blackouts, no skiing – and we also have almost the highest prices of electricity in the European Union.
The Ministry of Public Administration has announced that in October, they expect to publish two important calls for tenders to promote the integration of non-governmental organisations in the international space and the partnership of NGOs in international projects, as well as professionalisation in voluntary organisations.
The two tenders will cost an estimated 6,100,00 euros “Dear taxpayers, look at how the government is spending your money. This is why the money is practically being taken away from projects to build homes for the elderly, kindergartens, schools, gyms, ring roads, flood embankments… The Left party (Levica), the Social Democrats party (Socialni demokrati – SD) and the
Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda) are paying for the cyclists,” President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), Janez Janša, commented on the announcement of the tenders for NGOs. According to the Slovenian Press Agency, the ministry said that the total amount of funding for the two calls for tenders amounts to 6,100,000 euros.
Record borrowing due to the big appetites of NGOs For this year, next year, and the year 2024, the government’s proposal foresees huge spending well beyond the taxpayers’ means. This year, the deficit will be around two billion euros (640 million of Golob’s borrowing will be added to the existing deficit). Next year already, it will jump by an additional 1.3 billion, so that it will reach a staggering 3.3 billion more than is projected to flow into the state budget. As the government has been heavily criticised for this decision by the Fiscal Council and, of course, Slovenian municipalities, which are unhappy at being left behind despite record borrowing, the government has said in its defence that this is because of the Janša government’s “pre-election candy” coverage, the energy crisis, and so on. The Fiscal Council has made it clear that the government’s excuses are on shaky ground.
As the NGOs expect to be thanked for their contribution to the victory of the ruling parties, it is clear that the appetite for money is high. The government must react accordingly – to the detriment of the wider population. And, of course, it is not all NGOs that can now latch on to the state budget, but only those who are pro-government and have clearly defined political objectives.
While the Janša government invested money in renovating schools, kindergartens, building and renovating homes for the elderly, and municipalities, the Golob government is investing money in a very select group of people and organisations. Instead of taking the approach of the anti-corona legislative packages, which help the economy and a wide range of citizens, the current government is directing its aid to a small proportion of people, as if we are not all subject to severe inflation and rising prices. The attitude of the government towards employed persons is particularly shameful. At the expense of fiscal logic, they are promising lower wages to the widest range of people, and those without children will not receive any help at all. The situation is particularly bad for disabled people and pensioners with the lowest incomes. The fact that the government is literally making a fool of the people who have worked all their lives was proven recently, when it decided to increase the annual allowance for pensioners for the year 2023 by 5 euros in all pay grades, compared to last year. Pensioners will get more next year, they announced triumphantly, even though it is crystal clear to every one of us that these 5 euros have long since been eaten up by inflation. Perhaps the people in power should go to the stores more often or check to see how much utility bills have gone up!
As Dr Gorazd Trpin, a retired associate professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana, made it very clear in a recent interview with the national media outlet Radio-Television Slovenia, no civil organisation pursues the general interest, they all pursue partial ones. The logical conclusion is that it is absolutely outrageous that a privileged few pursuing their own interests should be put at the forefront. They quite predictably complain constantly about how everything is wrong whenever a government that is not left-wing is in power. And the figures explain best
why this is so. If we take a look at the state budget, we can see that from 2009 to 2019, 31 million euros were spent on homes for the elderly, 35 million euros were spent on student housing, and a whopping 70 million euros was spent on 20 left-wing NGOs.
Sara Kovač
