The list of Golob’s empty promises is getting longer every day, this time former members of LMŠ and SAB parties got on the wrong side of him. When Golob announced that after SAB and LMŠ joined Golob’s party, their members would automatically become members of the Gibanje Svoboda party, however, this is not the case, as they are subject to exactly the same entry conditions as everyone else. It is more than obvious that Golob does not want “too many” former members of the LMŠ and SAB in his ranks, hence the selection, but it is now clear that in this case the parties are in reality just a hollow tool of their founders, so that they are not unemployed, but for ordinary members they do not care.
Although MPs from the former SAB and LMŠ parties were promised automatic membership after joining the Gibanje Svoboda party, it has now turned out that these were just Golob’s empty words, as they also have to go through the same membership process as everyone else. The realisation that members of other liberal parties are completely at the mercy of the great leader is clearly painful and, according to N1, some MPs from the former SAB and LMŠ do not hide their dissatisfaction. Golob is obviously selecting carefully so that no one crosses over to the right or begins to reveal secrets.
If former members of SAB and LMŠ thought that supporting Golob gave them some “privilege”, they were very mistaken. Robert Golob does not want to accept them among his ranks without meeting the same conditions for membership that apply to everyone else. Former members, just like everyone else, must fill out and sign the declaration of accession and obtain a written recommendation from two former members of Golob’s party. N1 reported that some former members of LMŠ and SAB are extremely dissatisfied with this and that this is a show of distrust, and there is also an assumption that Golob does not like the idea that there would be too many of them in the Gibanje Svoboda party, because then there would also be their strength and higher requirements.
Head of public relations and marketing of the Gibanje Svoboda, Vesna Vuković, denied the claims about the selection for N1 and emphasised that it was a formal procedure, but former members of the dissolved parties certainly do not think that way. On the other hand, at the beginning of the year, Robert Golob stated that the reason for including the recommendation of two members of the party in the statute as a condition for membership was that they wanted to prevent the opposing camp from inciting any members or a hostile takeover of the party from happening.
At the end of June, the digital congress of the Gibanje Svoboda confirmed with more than 90% support the merger of the List of Marjan Šarec (LMŠ) and the Party of Alenka Bratušek (SAB). This marked the last steps towards the unification of the centre-left parties under the auspices of the Gibanje Svoboda. In addition to membership, Gibanje Svoboda also got their local committees and LMŠ European MPs Irena Joveva and Klemna Grošlja. LMŠ and SAB will also contribute budget funds to the united party, which the legislation makes available to parties that achieved at least one percent of the vote in the elections.
Tanja Brkić
