Robert Golob, like every other new face of the transitional left, clearly understands that the way to complete immunity from the Slovenian rule of law is to have a good relationship with the third (judicial) branch of government. Even by promising them a “happy ending” – meaning a fabulous pay rise completely outside the Slovenian public sector salary system. In the end – with a short delay – the “happy ending” did indeed happen, but with the pertinent question of whether the Slovenian judiciary really deserves it.
Last year, at an extraordinary general assembly of the Slovenian Judges’ Association, Golob made those gathered quite happy by saying, “I promise you a happy ending,” and stressed that on the 1st of January (he did not specify the year, or perhaps we simply overheard him), all paid officials in the judicial system would be paid a 600-euros-gross bonus. At that point, he obviously spoke too soon, as the matter was far from being coordinated with the coalition partners and inter-ministerially, although the Finance Minister and the Justice Minister defended it vigorously. But as often happens in Golob’s coalition of chaos, first Golob says something, then his ministerial knights twist the arms of officials for so long that his wish is finally granted. This time, the same thing happened once again.
What Golob wants, Golob gets
Minister of Public Administration Sanja Ajanović Hovnik said that the government had already identified a “potentially unconstitutional situation” in January, when it said that judges’ salaries were too low, so it had initially wanted to alleviate the problem with an intervention bonus of 600 euros for judges, but had failed to do so because the Legislative and Legal Service of the National Assembly had expressed concerns about the law and opposition was expected. Therefore, the next manoeuvre to ensure the obedience of the judiciary was to place judges on the salary scale.
Some of the judges’ salaries increased by a factor of two
Judges thus became the first to be included in the new salary scale by the government. The lowest-paid judicial post will now be in the 44th pay bracket (4,400 euros gross), while the highest will be in the 67th pay bracket. Currently, the lowest-paid judges are paid less than 2,000 euros gross per month. They were also assured that the agreement was adopted in line with the state budget’s financial capacity, so there is no fear that the State Treasury would not be able to bear the increase in judges’ salaries. Of course, how could it not – they can always find more money for the first-class citizens, and if they cannot do it otherwise, they get the money by taxing us mere mortals even more.
Will their productivity and efficiency double?
Logically, such an increase would also require a doubling of productivity and, above all, a professional trial that could not be deemed biased and unfair. However, the reality is miserable and entirely consistent with a country where the post-Communist transition has never been implemented (Russia, Belarus …). The Slovenian judiciary is a serial violator of human rights. As many as 91.69 percent of the judgments have violated at least one human right. This puts us in second place on the infamous list of the most unjust courts in the European Union (only Malta is “ahead” of us).
The judiciary, whose salaries have just been doubled, is therefore performing extremely badly, regardless of what the EU’s politically completely biased Rule of Law Report on Slovenia says. The figures speak for themselves.
In other words, the overwhelming majority of applicants to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from Slovenia succeed. Of the 373 judgments heard by the ECHR before 2021, 342 found human rights violations. To this, we must also add an additional four ECHR judgments from 2022, which again found human rights violations, as can be seen from publicly available data.
“When the European Court of Human Rights decides that Slovenia has violated human rights, the state authorities are notified about the ruling but do not inform the public of it. As a result, people do not know that Slovenia has been convicted in Strasbourg. For years, I have been informing the public about ECHR judgments and violations. In recent years, I am no longer informing the public of such outcomes and, with many judgments against Slovenia, neither are the authorities, the Slovenian Press Agency (Slovenska tiskovna agencija – STA) or the media. People are deprived of important information on the state of the rule of law and human rights in Slovenia,” constitutional lawyer Dr Jurij Toplak wrote in a letter criticising the Slovenian justice system and the authorities.
A raise to protect the first class?
But the violations are continuing. In his press release, Toplak informed the readers that Slovenia has been condemned again because the courts are still not holding public hearings. “On the 6th of July 2023, the ECHR found a violation of fair trial standards because the courts did not hold public hearings when Mr Jure Letonje was fined after he sat on a police car. The Constitutional Court found no violation of European law in this. The ECHR judgment is a slap in the face to the Constitutional Court and the Slovenian judiciary, because the ECHR and lawyers have been explaining to them for more than 15 years now that they are in violation of a law, but the Constitutional Court does not seem to understand it. The ECHR has informed the Slovenian authorities of the ruling; however, the public did not hear the news,” the lawyer stated.
These are systemic violations that are not going away, and there is no action plan either by the courts or the Ministry of Justice to remedy the situation. They often boast that everything is great and that the backlog is decreasing. But unfortunately, there are also more and more unjust judgments, so it is no wonder that the justice system in Slovenia has been nicknamed “the unjust system”. When people are judged unjustly, unprofessionally and incompetently, lives, families and property that people have built up over a lifetime are destroyed. The damage is irreparable, regardless of the satisfaction awarded by the ECHR, and we, the guiltless taxpayers, are the ones who ultimately have to pay the price.
Do such “workers” really deserve higher wages? In any normal company, they would already be polishing up their CVs together with the employment service adviser. But in Slovenia, they are untouchable. Perhaps also because various “positive Slovenians” can never be convicted and have lifetime immunity? Let’s be honest here. In the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and later the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Edvard Kardelj and Stane Dolanc would never have been convicted. And in an independent Slovenia, their successors Zoran Janković and Robert Golob will also never be convicted.
Andrej Žitnik
