Robert Golob (born 23 January 1967)
Early life and education
Golob obtained his
PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Ljubljana in 1994 and continued his studies as a post-doctoral Fulbright scholar in the
United States, at the Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta.
Business career
In 2004, Golob co-founded an energy trading company
GEN Energija,
which is state-controlled,
and where he remained chairman until 2021.
Political career
Between May 1999 and June 2000, Golob was the State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the government led by prime minister Janez Drnovšek of the LDS party. In 2002, he was elected to the City Council of
Nova Gorica, a position he held until 2022.
In 2011, Golob joined the Positive Slovenia party, founded by the mayor of
Ljubljana Zoran Janković.
In 2013–14, with the rising tensions within the party between its founder and chairman Zoran Janković and Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek, Golob played a mediating role between the two factions.
In May 2014, after the final split between the two factions, he joined the breakaway Party of Alenka Bratušek (SAB), becoming one of its vice-presidents.
After SAB's poor performance in the subsequent 2014 election, he moved away from national-level politics, remaining active only at the local level in his municipality of Nova Gorica. Among other engagements, he chaired the neighborhood assembly of
Kromberk-Loke between 2010 and 2014, and remained member until 2022.
In 2021, Golob decided to once again take an active role in national politics, after his mandate as chairman of GEN-I had not been extended.
Prime Minister (2022–present)
In January 2022, Golob took over the small extra-parliamentary Green Actions Party and renamed it to Freedom Movement.
On 24 April 2022, in the 2022 Slovenian parliamentary election, the Freedom Movement won 41 seats in the 90-seat National Assembly.
Golob formed the government by joining forces with Social Democrats, another centre-left party, and The Left, giving him a majority in the legislature.
Foreign Policy
Middle East
Golob criticized Israel's military operations in the
Gaza Strip during the
Gaza war.
In May 2024, he announced that his government would recognize the Palestinian state.
In July 2025,
Itamar Ben-Gvir and
Bezalel Smotrich were also sanctioned under his government.
Personal life
Golob was married to Jana Nemec Golob for over thirty years. They have three children together.
Since autumn 2022, he has been living with Tina Gaber, a former model, in Ljubljana.
External links
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