“Golob demanded actions from me as Minister that were unacceptable, because he wanted to directly interfere in the recruitment of police officers. What’s more, in order for me to remain the Minister, someone had to lose their job. In fact, he took the position that he could demand this of me because he was the Prime Minister, which of course, as a Minister, I could not agree to,” former Minister of the Interior Tatjana Bobnar told the Commission of Inquiry.
Tatjana Bobnar, former Minister of the Interior and now Adviser to the President of the Republic of Slovenia, appeared before the National Assembly’s Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the potential political responsibility of holders of public office with regard to the alleged inadmissible political interference in the work of the Police and other state bodies. She reiterated that she had been subjected to political pressure from Prime Minister Robert Golob, which later led to her resignation. A scandal that should have led to the Prime Minister taking political accountability and then his resignation.
And what did Bobnar say about her short tenure at the top of the Ministry of the Interior? In a presentation lasting almost an hour and a half on her view of the subject of the Commission of Inquiry, she stressed that to this day, she does not know why she had to resign and that the Prime Minister had asked her to do things that she could not agree to as a Minister. He had demanded actions that were unacceptable because, she said, he had interfered directly in the staffing of the police. What’s more, she said, according to Golob, someone should have even lost their job! She stressed that she could not agree to such a thing.
She also described in great detail when exactly the relations between her and the Prime Minister became tense, how the communication between them took place, and who were all of the people that interfered in the staffing and other procedures concerning the police.
Vesna Vuković planned Bobnar’s removal
Tatjana Bobnar also described the role of Golob’s right-hand woman, Vesna Vuković. She said that Vuković, while she was still the PR representative of the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje svoboda), participated in Wednesday’s meetings, which were attended by Ministers from the Freedom Movement party’s quota. On one occasion, Vuković brought Bobnar photographs of the demolished panel fence on the southern border with Croatia. Afterwards, Bobnar asked her if they had any unresolved issues, but Vuković denied it. “Later, Andrej Ribič told me about her dissatisfaction with me.” However, information about her removal, which was being prepared by Vesna Vuković, was given to her chief of staff by a Mladina journalist last November.
According to the former Minister, she had only cooperated with State Secretary Damir Črnčec on a professional basis, at government meetings.
After all this, Bobnar explained that she did not feel like a victim, but “I was a victim of manipulation and intrigues.”
Sara Kovač
