CORRUPTION HITS NEW HEIGHTS IN SLOVENIA AS FRIENDSHIPS ARE TESTED OVER POLITICAL ISSUES
From our correspondent in Ljubljana, Slovenia
The tiny republic of Slovenia is commonly percepted as a success story. It broke away from ex-Yugoslavia in 1991, avoiding the bloodshed which marked the rest of the country. In 2004 it entered the EU as well as NATO and was the first of the post-socialist economies to adopt Euro, the EU common market currency. However, the recent EU financial crisis, triggered by greek insolvency, has had a widespread effect even on the usually rational Slovenians. As the early general election set for 12/04 approaches, political parties are engaging in different legal and non-legal actions to secure as many votes as possible. With the ruling social democrats in tatters the main pretendent for an election victory is the opositionist Slovenian Democratic Party, led by independence hero and ex PM, mr. Janez Janša. But this expected victory could be seriously jeopardised by actions taken by one of his party members, mr. Darko Pirtovšek. CNN has learned that mr. Pirtovšek has recently exerted corruptive pressure on his long-time friend, mr. Andrej Perčič, in cohersing him to vote for mr. Janša`s party by threatening not to allow mr. Perčič to ever again attend mr. Pirtovšek`s mansion in Piran, a Slovenian coast resort. He even demanded to vote in place of mr. Perčič in order to secure another vote for his party in this year`s crucial election.
»Piran is my only chance to have a glimpse of the seaside and I`m left with no choice but to give in to Darko`s demand«, admitted mr. Perčič, employed in one of Slovenia`s many decaying industries. Mr. Pirtovšek is commonly known as »Jastreb (The Vulture)« due to his hardline and extremist views. He has no moral scrupuls with the issue: »It`s a pretty simple choice,« he says, »Pero must do as I say or he will never set foot on my seaside property again!«
The tiny republic of Slovenia is commonly percepted as a success story. It broke away from ex-Yugoslavia in 1991, avoiding the bloodshed which marked the rest of the country. In 2004 it entered the EU as well as NATO and was the first of the post-socialist economies to adopt Euro, the EU common market currency. However, the recent EU financial crisis, triggered by greek insolvency, has had a widespread effect even on the usually rational Slovenians. As the early general election set for 12/04 approaches, political parties are engaging in different legal and non-legal actions to secure as many votes as possible. With the ruling social democrats in tatters the main pretendent for an election victory is the opositionist Slovenian Democratic Party, led by independence hero and ex PM, mr. Janez Janša. But this expected victory could be seriously jeopardised by actions taken by one of his party members, mr. Darko Pirtovšek. CNN has learned that mr. Pirtovšek has recently exerted corruptive pressure on his long-time friend, mr. Andrej Perčič, in cohersing him to vote for mr. Janša`s party by threatening not to allow mr. Perčič to ever again attend mr. Pirtovšek`s mansion in Piran, a Slovenian coast resort. He even demanded to vote in place of mr. Perčič in order to secure another vote for his party in this year`s crucial election.
»Piran is my only chance to have a glimpse of the seaside and I`m left with no choice but to give in to Darko`s demand«, admitted mr. Perčič, employed in one of Slovenia`s many decaying industries. Mr. Pirtovšek is commonly known as »Jastreb (The Vulture)« due to his hardline and extremist views. He has no moral scrupuls with the issue: »It`s a pretty simple choice,« he says, »Pero must do as I say or he will never set foot on my seaside property again!«
Mr. Pirtovšek (left) and mr. Perčič (right) used to be long time friends and drinking chums in the old days before political issues had interfered…
THEY TALKED THE TALK BUT DIDN`T WALK THE WALK!
From our correspondent in Ljubljana, Slovenia
The stunning pole-defying electoral victory achieved by the hastily constructed Positive Slovenia party at the recent Slovenian general election is still causing some raised eyebrows in the Slovenian press and media. A disputable article, published on the website of the Slovenian Democratic Party, the defeated pre-election favorite, has implied that the winning party had won mainly due to the many votes cast by citizens of Serbian and other ex-Yugoslav origin, who attended the election in remarkably high numbers, wearing tracksuites and who could, according to the article`s author, not even remember the number of their party so they had it written on their wrists. The article was characterised as hatred speech and has boasted a furious response by various human rights watchdogs and institutions.
It has, however, come to CNN`s attention that even a most hardline SDS supporter, Mr. Darko Pirtovšek – The Vulture was seen in his tracksuite casting his vote for Positive Slovenia. While desperately trying to disguise his identity he was nevertheless compromised by joining other voters in singing »Druže Zoki, mi ti se kunemo (Comrade Zoki, we pledge you our allegiance)«, a traditional ex-yugoslav song, hailing the new PM-elect, Mr. Zoran Janković and which was originaly composed to glorify the late Marshal Tito. This came to our utmost surprise, even more so due to the fact that Mr. Pirtovšek had previously cohersed his long time friend, Mr. Andrej Perčič, into voting for SDS, to which mr. Perčič duly obliged and even presented Mr. Pirtovšek with photo-evidence material of his voting action. Our sources tell us that when confronted with evidence of his friend`s voting threachery a notably surprised mr. Perčič commented: »He talked the talk, but didn`t walk the walk!«
The stunning pole-defying electoral victory achieved by the hastily constructed Positive Slovenia party at the recent Slovenian general election is still causing some raised eyebrows in the Slovenian press and media. A disputable article, published on the website of the Slovenian Democratic Party, the defeated pre-election favorite, has implied that the winning party had won mainly due to the many votes cast by citizens of Serbian and other ex-Yugoslav origin, who attended the election in remarkably high numbers, wearing tracksuites and who could, according to the article`s author, not even remember the number of their party so they had it written on their wrists. The article was characterised as hatred speech and has boasted a furious response by various human rights watchdogs and institutions.
It has, however, come to CNN`s attention that even a most hardline SDS supporter, Mr. Darko Pirtovšek – The Vulture was seen in his tracksuite casting his vote for Positive Slovenia. While desperately trying to disguise his identity he was nevertheless compromised by joining other voters in singing »Druže Zoki, mi ti se kunemo (Comrade Zoki, we pledge you our allegiance)«, a traditional ex-yugoslav song, hailing the new PM-elect, Mr. Zoran Janković and which was originaly composed to glorify the late Marshal Tito. This came to our utmost surprise, even more so due to the fact that Mr. Pirtovšek had previously cohersed his long time friend, Mr. Andrej Perčič, into voting for SDS, to which mr. Perčič duly obliged and even presented Mr. Pirtovšek with photo-evidence material of his voting action. Our sources tell us that when confronted with evidence of his friend`s voting threachery a notably surprised mr. Perčič commented: »He talked the talk, but didn`t walk the walk!«
Mr. Pirtovšek »The Vulture«
was seen at his voting station
dressed in a tracksuite and singing
»Druže Zoki, mi ti se kunemo«
