Slovenia’s anti-corruption watchdog said on Tuesday that liberal Prime Minister Robert Golob had breached integrity rules while in office, just two months ahead of elections that could bring the conservative opposition back to power.
Slovenia will hold parliamentary elections on March 22, and opinion polls currently put the conservatives led by three-time prime minister Janez Jansa – an admirer of US President Donald Trump – in the lead ahead of Golob’s centre-left coalition.
The Anti-Corruption Commission started investigating Golob after his then interior minister Tatjana Bobnar resigned in 2022, accusing him of having requested her and the police chief to “clean up” the force from officials appointed by the previous Jansa-led government.
According to the watchdog’s report concluding its probe, Golob “acted against the expectations and responsibilities of his office” when expressing to Bobnar, in two text messages, his “concern” and “dissatisfaction” over the “staffing situation in the police”.
The commission’s findings will not have any legal repercussions unless the judiciary takes up the case and comes to the same conclusions, but they have led to opposition calls for Golob’s resignation.
“We are convinced that this does not represent breaching integrity,” Golob’s cabinet said in a written statement sent to AFP, adding that the anti-graft body dismissed other allegations against Golob.
Golob has repeatedly dismissed all allegations.
Conservative media posted a statement by Golob ahead of the 2022 parliamentary elections, in which he said he would “certainly resign” if the anti-graft watchdog ever ruled he had breached integrity rules.
In 2022, Golob, then a political newcomer, defeated Jansa’s Slovenian Democratic Party, promising to restore “normality” and accusing his rival of rule-of-law breaches.
Golob’s lawyer, Stojan Zdolsek, was quoted by Slovenian news agency STA as saying the watchdog’s conclusions were “unlawful” and that he would contest them in court.
In March 2025, Slovenian prosecutors asked a court to launch a judicial investigation against Golob over Bobnar’s allegations he interfered in police staffing, but the court has not yet decided whether to charge him or not.