If there are no surprises, a new Slovenian government will be elected tomorrow in the National Assembly with a fairly comfortable majority, which he will lead for the fourth time Janez Janša. The candidates for 15 ministerial positions in the 16th Slovenian government presented their ministerial visions at the beginning of the week and received the support of the competent parent bodies. Labor analysts singled out the finance minister as one of them Andrej Širclj (SDS) as the strongest, Mihaela Zupančič (Democrats) as the weakest member of the fourth Janš government.
General impression of Del’s analyst Karel Lipnik is that the new government will be very effective. Nine of the fifteen ministers already have experience either in the current department or have already held other ministerial positions, which means that they know the system and have clear goals, so they will start implementing them immediately. “At quite a few hearings, we heard a lot of words about digitization, rationalization, consolidation. The number of ministries has also decreased, and in fact we do not yet know exactly what kind of matter and problems the new ministers will encounter,” Delo’s commentator warns Tomica Šuljić.
Nine of the fifteen ministers already have ministerial experience.
Janša entrusted the Superministry to his lawyer.
New Slovenia offered operational ministers.
According to Lipnik, Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj will be the central figure of this government, the right hand of Janez Janša, who will ensure that the budget is within the framework desired by the European Union. He is convinced that Janša does not want external problems, which means that a large part of the ministries will be forced to save heavily, at least for a few years, until cuts are made in the increasing public spending.
Lipnik also announces a budget rebalance, which will give very clear instructions to the ministries on what to do. “In the ministries, the first problems will appear because the budgets of the ministries will be smaller than the employees of the ministries want.”
The worst impression
In contrast to Širclje, the worst impression among all the interviewed ministerial candidates was made by Ambassador to Denmark Mihael Zupančič, who is running for Minister of Justice in Anžet Logar’s Democratic party quota. “The opposition’s complaint that it does not know the system that it is supposed to regulate, modify, modernize and bring about changes was justified,” Šuljić assesses.
The biggest disappointment was the very modest presentation of Skok, the specialized prosecution unit for the prosecution of corruption, which is the most important political project of his party. He could not say anything definite about the Skoka organization. In addition, he contradicted himself with regard to the number of judges: “At the beginning, he stated that the judiciary suffers from a lack of personnel, but added that he did not mean the judges. A little later, however, he said that due to the generational change, according to some calculations, up to two hundred judges should retire. These two pieces of information do not go together in any way.”
Logar will need a strong team
The interlocutors agreed that the ministers of New Slovenia bring a high level of operational efficiency to the government. Party chairman Jernej Vrtovec is returning to the Ministry of Infrastructure, and will also be in charge of energy. Lipnika is concerned that the government has taken a step back: “They withdrew from renewable sources. This can be problematic. Renewable sources have recently become the cheapest source of energy, and if Slovenia does not go in this direction, we will have problems.” It should be remembered that NSi defended fossil fuels in the opposition with the political slogan: We do not give firewood!
As for the most controversial member of the fourth Janš crew, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Digitization and Public Administration France MatozaDel’s analysts have a different opinion. Lipnik estimates that Franci Matoz will be a weak member of the government, although he is a close confidant Janez Janša. It will be weak because the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Infrastructure will prepare a list to reduce bureaucracy, and it will be implemented by Matoz at the operational level, which will be a problem for him.
Outgoing Prime Minister Robert Dove after the end of the last session of the government, which he led for four years, he emphasized that “after four years, Slovenia is a country that knows how to stand on its own two feet”. In an uncertain world, it has maintained stability and is a safe country. “This is the most that a responsible politician can leave as his legacy,” he is convinced. Golob, who is preparing for the role of leader of the opposition, will hand over business with Janez Janša after tomorrow’s election of the new government. Golob said that he and Janša already have practice in this regard and will repeat the exercise on Thursday. “Not for the last time, I believe,” he added. After the handover of business between Golob and Janša, the first meeting of the new government follows. According to unofficial forecasts, they will be at the forefront of recruitment. Due to the Black Cube affair, the director of the Slovenian Intelligence and Security Agency, Joško Kadivnik, is at the top of the priority list of personnel changes.
According to Šuljić, the biggest problem for Matoz with the superministry will be that three ministries are actually united under one roof. “It is not so much about Matoz’s ability to lead that is to be doubted as about the goals they set for themselves in the coalition agreement.”
It also faces a very complex challenge Anže Logarthe champion of the Democrats, who takes over the Ministry of Economy, Sports and Labor. “With him, it will depend a lot on what kind of team he will put together. In the background, Logar’s party made a very good economic program, but he himself is not from this field, which means that he will have to put together a strong team,” notes Lipnik.
