Tackling healthcare and rising prices to be Golob’s first priorities

Ljubljana – In his address to parliament ahead of a vote on his becoming prime minister-elect, Robert Golob identified tackling problems in healthcare and containing rising energy and food prices as the first priorities of his emerging government. He underscored social justice, solidarity and knowledge-based society as their guidelines.

“A month ago, voters made it clear that they want to live in a normal country, where they won’t be facing constant uncertainty about what the next day will bring,” the 55-year-old former energy executive, who took his Freedom Movement to a resounding victory in the 24 April general election, told the National Assembly on Wednesday.

He said people were hoping for a better future, something that he pledged to aspire for.

The main programme points of his centre-left government, formed in coalition with the Social Democrats and the Left, involve building a socially fair and solidarity-based state relying on knowledge.

The cornerstone of the welfare state would be an accessible public health system. Golob announced an “experiment” where reforms would be taken not only on paper, but would also involve a stress test plan for the public healthcare system to see what its limits are.

“This is a historic experiment with a clear intention of how to set up the system so that in 2024 we will have truly reformed it, so it will last for the next 20 years,” he said.

Another major issue to be addressed is the high energy and food prices. Golob pledged for his government to establish the reasons for the high prices by September and contain them, if necessary by regulating prices, but they will start by seeking voluntary agreements with suppliers and traders for each to “shoulder part of the burden”.

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